The Isle of Youth
Stories
ISBN10: 0374177236
ISBN13: 9780374177232
Trade Paperback
256 Pages
$17.00
CA$23.00
Laura van den Berg explores the lives of women who are mired in secrecy and deception. Ranging from the inscrutability of a marriage to private eyes working a baffling case in South Florida to a teenager who assists her magician mother and steals from the audience, these stories are linked by mystery and by women who are at once vulnerable and dangerous, bighearted and ruthless—who will do what it takes to survive.
The characters in these stories share a sense of bewilderment, the sensation of having become lost in the mysteries of the self and the world at large, that seems at once entirely singular and utterly familiar. Van den Berg writes with an elegant urgency and hypnotic rhythm, revealing the inner lives of marginalized young women who are grappling with the choices they've made and are searching for the clues that will unlock their lives. Van den Berg is a modest but fearless writer—her stories feel both magical and mystical, earning her the title of "sorceress" from her fans. Be prepared to fall under her spell.
Reviews
Praise for The Isle of Youth
Praise for Laura van den Berg
"There is a special kind of magic in the writing of van den Berg, a damp-eyed sorceress who blends the mythological with the everyday, buoyant playfulness with lacerating sadness. Each sentence reads like a beautiful bruise smeared across pages as pale as the bodies that so often strip off their clothes and tangle together in these tender, elegant stories." —Benjamin Percy
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
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I LOOKED FOR YOU, I CALLED YOUR NAME
The first thing that went wrong was the emergency landing. My husband and I were both reading In Flight Magazine and enjoying the complimentary wine in first class—I'd never flown first...
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Laura van den Berg, Steve Gunn, and Sloane Crosley at the Originals Series
The Originals Series: Sloane Crosley hosts an evening of conversation and music featuring author Laura van den Berg (The Isle of Youth) and Steve Gunn (of Kurt Vile and the Violators).
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