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George Saunders, author of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life

For the last 20 years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

Week of April 11, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of April 11th include THE HUSBANDS by Chandler Baker, a smart, sharp and timely novel that imagines a world where the burden of the “second shift” is equally shared --- and what it might take to get there; Chris Whitaker's WE BEGIN AT THE END, an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families --- the ones we are born into and the ones we create; A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN, a literary master class courtesy of George Saunders on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves --- and our world today; THIS CLOSE TO OKAY by Leesa Cross-Smith, a powerful, vibrant novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers; and RUBY FALLS, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s nail-biting tale of a fragile young actress, the new husband she barely knows, and her growing suspicion that the secrets he harbors may eclipse her own.