Women and Children First: Stories - Paperback

by Francine Prose (Author)

"Reading [this book] is like driving down the road with a companion who is so smart and funny and insightful that her conversation transforms the landscape" (Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres).

The twelve "meticulously observed" stories of Women and Children First showcase New York Times-bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Francine Prose at her finest--offering a glimpse into the lives of men and women searching for connection and meaning in a world that often seems pre-programmed for absurdity (The New York Times).

An adult daughter struggling to understand her father's newfound Hasidic faith, an alcoholic trying to improve himself by fasting, a housewife enrolled in the New Consciousness Academy, a French literature professor who's begun to fear Madame Bovary, and a young woman seeking direction from a Tibetan master in the company of neurotic, overeager followers--these are the achingly, hilariously real people who inhabit these "wise and witty" stories (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).

Author Biography

Francine Prose is the author of sixteen novels, including A Changed Man, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. A former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prose is a highly regarded critic and essayist, and has taught literature and writing for more than twenty years at major universities. She is a distinguished writer in residence at Bard College, and she lives in New York City.