Elegy on Kinderklavier (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781936747764)

Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction
Barnes & Noble 2014 Discover Great New Writers Selection, Third Place

The stories in Elegy on Kinderklavier explore the profound loss and intricate effects of war on lives that have been suddenly misaligned. A diplomat navigates a hostile political climate and an arranged marriage in an Israeli settlement on a newly discovered planet; a small town in Kansas shuns the army recruiter who signed up its boys as troops are deployed to Iraq, falling in helicopters and on grenades; a family dissolves around mental illness and a child's body overtaken by cancer. The moment a soldier steps on an explosive device is painfully reproduced, nanosecond by nanosecond. Arna Bontemps Hemenway's stories feel pulled out of time and place, and the suffering of his characters seem at once otherworldly and stunningly familiar. Elegy on Kinderklavier is a disquieting exploration of what it is to lose and be lost.


Author: Arna Bontemps Hemenway
ISBN-10: 1936747766
ISBN-13: 9781936747764
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Language: English
Published: 07/15/2014
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.50w x 0.70d
Award: Discover Great New Writers - Third Place
Award: Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/03/2014
Library Journal 05/15/2014 pg. 77
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2014
Shelf Awareness 07/25/2014