The State We're in: Maine Stories - Tapa dura

"One of America's finest authors--and arguably best living short-story writer."--Heidi Julavits "Interview "

"Sparkling.... [her stories] finish with a quiet flourish, throwing a sudden subtle twist at us... In the end, these carefully drawn, minutely illustrated portraits of women-- and men-- depict slices of life in all its complexity."--Tom Lavoie "Shelf Awareness "

"Moving fluidly between adolescents and septuagenarians, it leaves us with the sense that uncertainty, disconnection, is not a matter of chronology but rather of being alive."--David Ulin "Los Angeles Times "

"A peerless, contemplative page-turner."--Nicole Jones "Vanity Fair "

"Edgy, funny and dark... Beattie's unerring dialogue exposes each story's truths... effortless grace."--Carol Memmott "Minneapolis Star-Tribune "

"What has always set Beattie's stories apart is their open-ended capaciousness, so unlike the deterministic, epiphany-shaped prose that has defined the short form... THE STATE WE'RE IN is a revelation, and is shaded by the perspective of an author who now understands both sides of a generational divide... In a Beattie story, perspective is preeminent, and it's never one you expect. The unwieldiness of human nature, the strangeness of time and circumstance, inevitably shine through."--Megan O'Grady "Vogue "

"Splendid... memorable... Beattie's sociological wit and probity are truly unsurpassed in our literature... though I didn't think this was possible, I experienced an even more heightened awe of Beattie's skills... The dexterity of tone, fearless honesty, and close mapping of lives that may lead to ghastly revelations or even redemption are sheer gifts of reading... this collection has many, many moments of utter surprise. In fact, every page is fitted out with the blessed finery of hypnotic storytelling."--Howard Norman "Washington Post "

"Cause for readers to celebrate... edgy, unfiltered."--Joan Silverman "Portland Press Herald "

"Beattie is a master at depicting the peculiarly painful valor necessary for contending with troubled family members, spouses, lovers, neighbors, even pets. She is also that rarest of beings, a brilliantly comic literary writer... Most often, it's her skirmishing dialogue that makes us laugh out loud... [a] stellar collection by Beattie, a writer revered and honored for her keen insights and wit."--Donna Seaman "Booklist, STARRED review "

"Beattie's signature gifts - her finely tuned language, droll wit, unerring feel for popular culture- are on rich display here...vivid...More than a paean to the Pine Tree State, The State We're In underscores the indelible contribution Beattie has made to American short fiction." --Hamilton Cain "O, The Oprah Magazine "

From a multiple prize–winning master of the short form: a stunning collection of brand-new, linked stories that perfectly capture the zeitgeist through the voices of vivid and engaging women from adolescence to old age.

“We build worlds for ourselves wherever we go,” writes Ann Beattie. The State We’re In, her magnificent new collection of linked stories, is about how we live in the places we have chosen—or been chosen by. It’s about the stories we tell our families, our friends, and ourselves, the truths we may or may not see, how our affinities unite or repel us, and where we look for love.

Many of these stories are set in Maine, but The State We’re In is about more than geographical location, and certainly is not a picture postcard of the coastal state. Some characters have arrived by accident, others are trying to get out. The collection opens, closes, and is interlaced with stories that focus on Jocelyn, a wryly disaffected teenager living with her aunt and uncle while attending summer school. As in life, the narratives of other characters interrupt Jocelyn’s, sometimes challenging, sometimes embellishing her view.

Riveting, witty, sly, idiosyncratic, and bold, these stories describe a state of mind, a manner of being—now. A Beattie story, says Margaret Atwood, is “like a fresh bulletin from the front: we snatch it up, eager to know what’s happening out there on the edge of that shifting and dubious no-man’s-land known as interpersonal relations.” The State We’re In is a fearless exploration of contemporary life by a brilliant writer whose fiction startles as it illuminates.