Discover new kitchen selections
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
Buy new:
-52% $19.97
FREE delivery Sunday, April 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$19.97 with 52 percent savings
List Price: $42.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, April 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Saturday, April 19. Order within 2 hrs 2 mins
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
$$19.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.97
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$12.70
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can also include From the library of labels. May not contain miscellaneous items toys dvds etc. . We offer 100% money back guarantee and 24 7 customer service. Free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime! See less
FREE delivery Sunday, April 20 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Saturday, April 19. Order within 2 hrs 2 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$19.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$19.97
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Deborah Eisenberg
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg: Stories Paperback – March 30, 2010

by Deborah Eisenberg (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 87 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$19.97","priceAmount":19.97,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"19","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"97","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"QwJ4odC9LsBfJrgYWTR6t5%2BZGUuu6ST5LJR5E0XfxA2mxZgVvWhwoTOlnKhOxwAs9qZ4lyqwAg3A6%2BYx9hi4j%2FdcVL5lmxFvRiPEoDz%2B2h6Dx1mgCZrC2yGCS6cL4tQFb1xG4Br6wEs%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$12.70","priceAmount":12.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"QwJ4odC9LsBfJrgYWTR6t5%2BZGUuu6ST5igTeiw49FwCdmHxwc1Yd0KFsEpmDFqkft5C45%2Ffs9y2n82XHjcZ33UrSc6NC4ReOXs99ENZjWT%2F1fmO97sNWbJUWEs6FhlHFDGEod5GaJ0uMDaWP3joEJ32BWx6mKszpn3twBDFwXtV3xtYOnHb4%2FaxfD%2BXIDhaZ","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg contains twenty-seven short stories by "a contemporary master" (New York Times).

Since 1986 with the publication of her first story collection, Deborah Eisenberg has devoted herself to writing "exquisitely distilled stories" which "present an unusually distinctive portrait of contemporary American life" to quote the MacArthur Foundation. This one volume brings together Transactions in a Foreign Currency (1986), Under the 82nd Airborne (1992), All Around Atlantis (1997) and Twilight of the Superheroes (2006).

"One of America's finest writers."―San Francisco Chronicle
"Concentrated bursts of perfection."―The Times (London)

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    992 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador
  4. Publication date
    March 30, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 2.22 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0312429894
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312429898
Next slide of product details
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Eisenberg, like Alice Munro and Amy Hempl, is a short story specialist who infuses the concentrated form with emotional intricacy and depth, dark humor, suspense, and wonder. Fluent in the dreams, pretensions, and demands of New York City, Eisenberg writes with equal finesse about those who have succeeded in securing a place in the social order and floundering twentysomethings botching love and other opportunities. Eisenberg also knows how a small apartment can become a wilderness and how dangerous the isolation of a rural life can be. Her characters, especially betrayed women, curl themselves around their psychic wounds like hands cupped around a candle’s flame as the world churns on, assured, impatient, devouring. A MacArthur fellowship is Eisenberg’s most recent major award, and now readers are granted a boon: this glorious volume contains in their entirety Transactions in a Foreign Currency (1986), Under the 82nd Airborne (1992), All around Atlantis (1997), and Eisenberg’s most commanding collection, Twilight of the Superheroes (2006). An electrifying gathering of masterful tales of treachery and resilience, souls lost and found. --Donna Seaman

Review

“One of America's finest storytellers has been anthologized: The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg (Picador) locates elegant symmetries in uncertain lives navigating uncertain times.” ―VOGUE.com

“Sarcastic, self-aware, and often wickedly funny…. Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Eisenberg's stories is the ease with which she captures the fearful excitement of being human, and our reluctance to acknowledge how little our circumstances have to do with our own decisions.” ―Rachael Brown, TheAtlantic.com

“If you haven't discovered Deborah Eisenberg's beautifully crafted short stories, this is a good choice, because you will want to read and reread them all. These stories are rich and delicate, and linger in the memory to shift and amplify their values. Eisenberg's subtle, intelligent observations put readers in the best company.” ―Prairie Lights Bookstore

“What is it like to be a genius? Ask Deborah Eisenberg. The question is not as hyperbolic as it might seem; last year, Eisenberg was awarded a MacArthur fellowship, usually referred to as a ‘Genius Grant'." ―Belinda McKeon, Irish Times

“This season, I chose four books of stories to read and recommend. At the top of my list--and highly recommended--is The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.” ―Ann LaFarge, Hudson Valley News

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (March 30, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 992 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312429894
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312429898
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 2.22 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 87 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Deborah Eisenberg

Deborah Eisenberg

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
87 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book's stories nuanced and consistently fascinating, with one describing it as the best book of American fiction. The writing style receives positive feedback, with one customer highlighting its precision-driven sentences, while another notes the author's detailed character descriptions. Customers appreciate the humor in the book.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

7 customers mention "Story quality"7 positive0 negative

Customers praise the nuanced and consistently fascinating stories in the collection, with one customer calling it the best book of American fiction.

"...I love Deborah Eisenberg's beautiful stories and think you will too." Read more

"...ability to create three-dimensional characters; and the ability to create fascinating plots...." Read more

"Interesting, well crafted modern stories...." Read more

"...after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, these are the most consistently fascinating and enigmatic stories I've ever read...." Read more

4 customers mention "Beauty"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book magnificent.

"...It's incredible. I can't quite ever really wrap my head around it, that each life is amazingly abundant. No matter what...." Read more

"Eisenberg has three great virtues: a clear, beautiful and economical prose style; the ability to create three-dimensional characters; and the..." Read more

"Deborah Eisenberg's stories are always nuanced, brilliant, and deeply humane. Frequently they are hilarious and often they are exquisitely painful...." Read more

"Impeccable..." Read more

4 customers mention "Writing style"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, with one review highlighting its precision-driven sentences and another noting how the author describes characters' thoughts in great detail.

"...The carefulness of her prose, the precision-driven sentences, empathetic plots, strong and resolute characters--these qualities make us keep..." Read more

"Eisenberg has three great virtues: a clear, beautiful and economical prose style; the ability to create three-dimensional characters; and the..." Read more

"...The author describes their thoughts in great detail, and some of the characters have a lot to say, but nothing that they say or think about is very..." Read more

"One of the best short story writers of our generation." Read more

3 customers mention "Character development"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, with one noting how the characters are so human and another highlighting the author's ability to create three-dimensional characters.

"...the precision-driven sentences, empathetic plots, strong and resolute characters--these qualities make us keep reading...." Read more

"...a clear, beautiful and economical prose style; the ability to create three-dimensional characters; and the ability to create fascinating plots...." Read more

"...He characters are so human it's almost painful. I keep hearing myself think 'other people feel this way too?'..." Read more

3 customers mention "Humor"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the humor in the book, with one noting its irony.

"...As if that weren't enough, her sense of humor, wry, ironic, is like no one else's." Read more

"Entertaining, although not the best." Read more

"...Frequently they are hilarious and often they are exquisitely painful. I wish I had started reading her years ago." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • D. Chaudoir
    5.0 out of 5 stars "Billions of intense, abundant human lives on this earth..."
    Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    This magnificent and thorough collection is a real treasure. I can think of no contemporary story writer who has such fun with language, who can cleave into the tense emotions of people we know or think we know, who knows how and when to make us laugh and when to cry. This thick tome holds all of Eisenberg's stories thus far and the most remarkable thing is that she has remained remarkably consistent through her career. The carefulness of her prose, the precision-driven sentences, empathetic plots, strong and resolute characters--these qualities make us keep reading.

    One of my favorite stories in the collection is a later one, "Revenge of the Dinosaurs." In it, a young woman flies back to New York to sort out her dying grandmother's apartment. In the process of fielding the searing emotional demands of two important men in her life--her brother and her boyfriend--she focuses on the intensity of considering her Nana's life and what it meant. In the process, Eisenberg zeroes in on some of the most radically "real" moments all of us must and do face by virtue of being alive. She plumbs the ways in which the subconscious can influence what seem to be deliberate decisions. Consider the following passage from "Revenge":

    "There weren't going to be many artifacts. There wasn't going to be much for the world to remember our shiny Nana by except for example her small hard rectangular book on currency. It's incredible. I can't quite ever really wrap my head around it, that each life is amazingly abundant. No matter what. And every moment of experience is so intense, but so little evidence of that exists outside the living body. Billions of intense, abundant human lives on this earth, Nana's among them, vanishing, leaving nothing more than inscrutable little piles of commemorative trash."

    This is poetry, poetry to commit to memory. I love Deborah Eisenberg's beautiful stories and think you will too.
    5 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Lee Cronbach
    5.0 out of 5 stars Eisenberg has three great virtues: a clear
    Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Eisenberg has three great virtues: a clear, beautiful and economical prose style; the ability to create three-dimensional characters; and the ability to create fascinating plots. I must note one (or more) critical reviews here complain that the plots of the stories do not have clear endings. Most of these stories have implied endings: you can see where the plot is going and what the main character(s) are going to do ("Under the 82d Airborne'. for instance). Many great story-writers have this 'slice of life' approach: Chekov, Trevor, and others. The stories themselves are usually original and fascinating. The two most common scenes are New York and its suburbs, or expats living in a Latin American country. The latter stories are pretty political: having lived in LA in the 80s and 90s, I met many refugees from Mexico and Central America, and the horror stories they told verify even the most unbelievable Eisenberg plots in these locales. Most of the stories, though, are about East Coast metropolitan and suburban middle-class life, and almost all are fascinating: once you've read the first few pages, you can't stop until you have finished. Some of the characters you just fall in love with: "The Girl Who dropped the sock on the floor", for instance.
    Eisenberg is perhaps the greatest American writer of the last twenty years (unless T. C. Boyle is).
    11 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • FPeterson
    4.0 out of 5 stars Eisenberg has an amazing ability to take what could be construed as triteness ...
    Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Interesting, well crafted modern stories. Eisenberg has an amazing ability to take what could be construed as triteness and elevate it to poetic angst.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • reality bites
    5.0 out of 5 stars Impeccable
    Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, these are the most consistently fascinating and enigmatic stories I've ever read. Eisenberg is the master of exploring those mysterious things that happen to make or break, usually break, relationships. More than any other writer, her dialogue approximates what really happens when people talk, or try to talk to one another. The ellipses, the unfinished sentences, the leaps of thought are all there along with the pregnant pauses in which silence coils like a lethal snake. As if that weren't enough, her sense of humor, wry, ironic, is like no one else's.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Martin Flores
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best.
    Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Entertaining, although not the best.
    Helpful
     Report
  • virginia
    5.0 out of 5 stars magnificent
    Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Deborah Eisenberg's stories are always nuanced, brilliant, and deeply humane. Frequently they are hilarious and often they are exquisitely painful. I wish I had started reading her years ago.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Mike Antosia
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The best book of American fiction published this century.
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • J. Barker
    4.0 out of 5 stars How could I have not known about Deborah Eisenberg
    Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Bought this book after seeing Deborah Eisenberg and Wallace Shawn in The Designated Mourner. He characters are so human it's almost painful. I keep hearing myself think 'other people feel this way too?' I'm so glad to finally know about Deborah Eisenberg and have this amazing collection to savor.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • foeser
    5.0 out of 5 stars Short stories of Deborah Eisenberg
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Her stories are vivid, truthful and thought provoking. The best I've read for ages. It's a pity the publisher (Picador) put her into such a cheap and nasty book, she deserves the best. It's surprising that she's not more trumpeted as she's so good!
    Report