{"product_id":"the-spot-stories-9780865478510","title":"The Spot: Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Spot is an old blacksmith shed in which three men tweeze apart the intricacies of a botched bank robbery. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot is a park on the Hudson River, where two lovers sense their affair is about to come to an end. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot is at the bottom of Niagara Falls, where the body of a young girl floats as if caught in the currents of her own tragic story. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot is in the ear of a Manhattan madman plagued by a noisy upstairs neighbor . \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot is a suburban hospital room in which a young father confronts his son's potentially devastating diagnosis. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot is a dusty encampment in Nebraska where a gang of inept radicals plot a revolution. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Spot draws thirteen new stories together into a masterful collection that shows David Means at his finest: at once comically detached and wrenchingly affecting, expansive and concise, wildly inventive and firmly rooted in tradition. Means's work has earned him comparisons to Flannery O'Connor (\u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e), Alice Munro, Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac (\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e), Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson (\u003ci\u003eChicago\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\/NPR), Denis Johnson (\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e), Poe, Chekhov, and Carver (\u003ci\u003eMilwaukee Journal Sentinel\u003c\/i\u003e), but the spot he has staked out in the American literary landscape is fully and originally his own.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDAVID MEANS \u003c\/b\u003ewas born and raised in Michigan. His second collection of stories, \u003ci\u003eAssorted Fire Events\u003c\/i\u003e, earned the \u003ci\u003eLos Angles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize for fiction and a National Book Critics Circle nomination. His third book, \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Goldfish\u003c\/i\u003e, received widespread critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize. His fourth book, \u003ci\u003eThe Spot\u003c\/i\u003e, was selected as a 2010 Notable Book by \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and won an O. Henry Prize. His books have been translated into eight languages, and his fiction has appeared \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper's Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eZoetrope\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Mystery Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe O. Henry Prize Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, and numerous other publications. He lives in Nyack, New York, and teaches at Vassar College.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50330112098578,"sku":"9780865478510","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8e99aa92-1bbe-4009-b771-db248c546a56.jpg?v=1727792084","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-spot-stories-9780865478510","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}