Concerning the Future of Souls by Joy Williams
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781959030652
- Page Count
- 176
- Language
- English
- Imprint
- Tin House
Meet the Author
Joy Williams
“Glittering. . . . filled with humor, canny allusion, beauty.”―The New Yorker
“Quite possibly America's best living writer of short stories.”―NPR
“Williams is a writer for our times: both visionary and caustic, knowing yet also full of wonder.”―Catherine Taylor, The Financial Times
Returning to her legendary short stories, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Joy Williams offers a much-anticipated follow-up to Ninety-Nine Stories of God, which The New York Times Book Review called a “treasure trove of bafflements and tiny masterpieces.” Concerning the Future of Souls balances the extraordinary and the humble, the bizarre and the beatific, as Azrael—transporter of souls and the most troubled and thoughtful of the angels—confronts the holy impossibility of his task, his uneasy relationship with Death, and his friendship with the Devil.
Over the course of these ninety-nine illuminations, a collection of connected and disparate beings—ranging from ordinary folk to grand, known figures such as Jung, Nietzsche, Pythagoras, Bach, and Rilke; to mountains, oceans, dogs, birds, whales, horses, butterflies, a sixty-year-old tortoise, and a chimp named Washoe—experience the varying fate of the soul as each encounters the darkness of transcendence in this era of extinction. A brilliant crash course in philosophy, religion, literature, and culture, Concerning the Future of Souls is an absolution and an indictment, sorrowful and ecstatic. Williams will leave you wonderstruck, pondering the morality of being mortal.
“Quite possibly America's best living writer of short stories.”―NPR
“Williams is a writer for our times: both visionary and caustic, knowing yet also full of wonder.”―Catherine Taylor, The Financial Times
Returning to her legendary short stories, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Joy Williams offers a much-anticipated follow-up to Ninety-Nine Stories of God, which The New York Times Book Review called a “treasure trove of bafflements and tiny masterpieces.” Concerning the Future of Souls balances the extraordinary and the humble, the bizarre and the beatific, as Azrael—transporter of souls and the most troubled and thoughtful of the angels—confronts the holy impossibility of his task, his uneasy relationship with Death, and his friendship with the Devil.
Over the course of these ninety-nine illuminations, a collection of connected and disparate beings—ranging from ordinary folk to grand, known figures such as Jung, Nietzsche, Pythagoras, Bach, and Rilke; to mountains, oceans, dogs, birds, whales, horses, butterflies, a sixty-year-old tortoise, and a chimp named Washoe—experience the varying fate of the soul as each encounters the darkness of transcendence in this era of extinction. A brilliant crash course in philosophy, religion, literature, and culture, Concerning the Future of Souls is an absolution and an indictment, sorrowful and ecstatic. Williams will leave you wonderstruck, pondering the morality of being mortal.
Praise for Concerning the Future of Souls
-
“Glittering. . . . filled with humor, canny allusion, beauty.”
The New Yorker -
“Joy Williams distills much learning — from philosophy, religion and history — into 99 stories about the guy who takes your soul.. . .[she] resembles Mark Twain in the wildcat nature of her literary scorn. . . . .[and] writes with more feeling about nature than any writer I know.”
The New York Times -
“A singular collection of microfiction that distills the strange into a pure concentrate, showcasing the essence of her unique voice.”
Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of July
About the Imprint
Where the literary canon of tomorrow is born. Critically acclaimed titles that challenge, illuminate, and linger. Discover award-winning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from emerging voices you’ll say you found first.
