{"product_id":"paper-lantern-stuart-dybek-9780374535384","title":"Paper Lantern: Love Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new collection of short stories by a master of the form with a common focus on the turmoils of romantic love\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReady \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAim \u003cbr\u003eOn command the firing squad aims at the man backed against a full-length mirror. The mirror once hung in a bedroom, but now it's cracked and propped against a dumpster in an alley. The condemned man has refused the customary last cigarette but accepted as a hood the black slip that was carelessly tossed over a corner of the mirror's frame. The slip still smells faintly of a familiar fragrance.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSo begins Tosca, the first in this vivid collection of Stuart Dybek's love stories. Operatically dramatic and intimately lyrical, grittily urban and impressionistically natural, the varied fictions in \u003ci\u003ePaper Lantern\u003c\/i\u003e all focus on the turmoil of love as only Dybek can portray it. An execution triggers the recollection of a theatrical romance; then a social worker falls for his own client; and lovers part as giddily, perhaps as hopelessly, as a kid trying to hang on to a boisterous kite. A flaming laboratory evokes a steamy midnight drive across terrain both familiar and strange, and an eerily ringing phone becomes the telltale signature of a dark betrayal. Each story is marked with contagious desire, spontaneous revelation, and, ultimately, resigned courage. As one woman whispers when she sets a notebook filled with her sketches drifting out to sea, Someone will find you. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSome of Dybek's characters recur in these stories, while others appear only briefly. Throughout, they--and we--are confronted with vaguely familiar scents and images, reminiscent of love but strangely disconcerting, so that we might wonder whether we are looking in a mirror or down the barrel of a gun. After the ragged discharge, Dybek writes, when the smoke has cleared, who will be left standing and who will be shattered into shards? \u003ci\u003ePaper Lantern\u003c\/i\u003e brims with the intoxicating elixirs known to every love-struck, lovelorn heart, and it marks the magnificent return of one of America's most important fiction writers at the height of his powers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Stuart Dybek\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0374535388\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374535384\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/02\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d","brand":"Stuart Dybek","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44046971764991,"sku":"9780374535384","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_62365862-8c60-4718-a585-a2d4a26fccf4.jpg?v=1684987546","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/paper-lantern-stuart-dybek-9780374535384","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}