Nothing Right

Short Stories

By: Antonya Nelson

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Nancy Wu, Veronica Taylor

A collection of stories from one of the New Yorker's 20 young fiction writers of the new millennium, a series of unforgettable glimpses into contemporary family life. Set in the American Southwest, and featuring one previously unpublished story, Nothing Right shows one of our best writers working at the top of her game.

Antonya Nelson's stories are masterpieces: poignant, hilarious, truthful explorations of domesticity. The artfully rendered characters in Nothing Right try to keep themselves intact as their personal lives explode around them. A mother and her teenage son finally find common ground when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. A woman leaves her husband and finds herself living with a stranger who is getting extensive plastic surgery while her best friend is dying of cancer. In "Or Else", one of three short stories nominated for a National Magazine Award for the New Yorker, a man brings his girlfriend to a house he claims belongs to his family, only to have his lie exposed when one of the real owners comes home to scatter her father's ashes.

These stories are sure to delight longtime fans and listeners lucky enough to be just discovering Antonya Nelson.

©2009 Antonya Nelson (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Nelson never chafes against the limitations of her chosen form, the realistic well-made story. It’s the ideal medium for a writer who isn’t afraid to remind us of the familiar, who values insight over epiphany.” (New York Times Book Review)

"Stellar…. never has anxiety been made as entertaining as it is here. Nelson deploys a quirky, far-reaching humor and resonant detail to describe both the quiet and not-so-quiet implosions of midwestern families as they attempt to cope with contemporary life…. Nelson is in complete command of her material here, infusing her stories with just the right shades of poignancy, humor, and heartbreak.” (Booklist)