Collected Stories by Amy Hempel

Collected Stories by Amy Hempel

Adult Fiction Shelves
HEMPEL

In Collected Stories by Amy Hempel, one is reminded what words can do when written by a capable hand. The collection features Hempel’s previously published work starting with her first, “Reasons to Live” first published in 1985 and follows her publications to her most recent, “The Dog of the Marriage” published in 2005. Hempel writes of longing and the desire to connect to others; she writes of grief and of happiness, of the observations of characters who notice what others may not. Hempel’s stories range from just a few pages to longer pieces but they all offer up to the reader stories that, though short, will stay with the reader long into the following days. In one story Hempel writes, “The other day I was playing Scrabble. I saw that I could close the space in D-E- -Y. I had an N and an F. Which do you think I chose? What was the word I made?” Hempel’s language and superb ability to tell a story with a small economy of words has left a lasting impression on this reader.

Other Short Story Collections I would suggest:

We Others: new and selected stories by Steve Milhauser
We Others recently won the Story Prize.

The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don Delillo
The Angel Esmeralda was a finalist for the Story Prize.

Binocular Vision: new and selected stories by Edith Pearlman
Binocular Vision was a finalist for the Story Prize, National Book Award, and was the Winner for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction 2012.