Esther Stories Author:Peter Orner One of the most acclaimed and original story collections of the last decade, Peter Orner's first book explores the brief but far-reaching occasions that haunt us. The discovery of a murdered man in a bathrobe by the side of a road, the destruction of a town's historic City Hall building, and the recollection of a cruel wartime decision a... more »re equally affecting in Orner's vivid and intimate gaze. The first half of the book concerns the lives of unrelated strangers across the American landscape, and the second introduces two very different Jewish families, one on the East Coast, the other in the Midwest. Yet Orner's real territory is memory, and this book of wide-ranging and innovative stories remains an important and unique contribution to the art of the American short story.
Initials etched on a dining-room table, Lockeport, Nova Scotia --
Thumbs --
In the walls --
Early November --
Pile of clothes --
Papa Gino's --
On a bridge over the Homochitto --
Cousin Tuck's --
Two Poes --
Shoe story --
Thursday night at the Gropher Hole, April 1992 --
Country Road G --
At the Motel Rainbow --
Sitting Theodore --
At Horseneck Beach --
Sarah --
Walk Kaplan reads Hiroshima, March 1947 --
Melba Kuperschmid returns --
Birth of a son-in-law --
At the Conrad Hilton --
Awnings, bedspreads, combed yarns --
High priest at the gates --
In the dark --
Atlantic City --
Providence --
Michigan City, Indiana --
The raft --
The house on Lunt Avenue --
Daughters --
My father in an elevator with Anita Fanska, August, 1976 --