A Better Angel

ANEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ANEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWEDITORS' CHOICE In this inventive collection of stories, Chris Adrian treads the terrain of human suffering--illness, regret, mourning, sympathy--in the most unusual ways. A bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother. A boy tries to contact the spirit of his dead father...
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ANEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
ANEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWEDITORS' CHOICE


In this inventive collection of stories, Chris Adrian treads the terrain of human suffering--illness, regret, mourning, sympathy--in the most unusual ways. A bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother. A boy tries to contact the spirit of his dead father and finds himself talking to the Devil instead. A ne'er-do-well pediatrician returns home to take care of his dying father, all the while under the scrutiny of an easily-disappointed heavenly agent. WithA Better Angel's cast of living and dead characters, at once otherworldly and painfully human, Adrian has created a haunting work of spectral beauty and wit.