The Art of the Short Story: Lily King on Five Tuesdays in Winter with Kate Walbert

With Writers & Lovers and Euphoria, Lily King’s books catapulted onto bestseller and best-of-the-year lists across the country and established her as one of our most “brilliant” (New York Times Book Review), “wildly talented” (Chicago Tribune), and beloved authors in contemporary fiction. Now, Five Tuesdays in Winter collects, for the first time ever, ten of King’s finest short stories–half published in leading literary magazines and half brand new–opening fresh realms of discovery for avid and new readers alike.

Told in the intimate voices of uniquely endearing characters of all ages, these tales explore desire and heartache, loss and discovery, moments of jolting violence and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A bookseller’s unspoken love for his employee rises to the surface, a neglected teenage boy finds much-needed nurturing from an unlikely pair of college students hired to housesit, a girl’s loss of innocence at the hands of her employer’s son becomes a catalyst for strength and confidence, and a proud nonagenarian rages helplessly in his granddaughter’s hospital room. A German mother and her teenage daughter vacation on the North Sea, attempting to escape the loss they have suffered, a middle-aged gay man reunites with his college roommate, the object of his unrequited desire all those years ago, and in one story, slipping slyly into the surreal, a mysterious man appears at the door, interrupting a young mother at work on her secret, unfinished novel. Romantic, hopeful, brutally raw, and unsparingly honest, these stories are, above all, about King’s enduring subject of love.

Five Tuesdays in Winter showcases an exhilarating new form for this gifted author known for her candor, wit and profound, yet completely unsentimental wisdom. This is Lily King writing at the height of her career.