{"product_id":"the-traces-an-essay-9781646052004","title":"The Traces: An Essay","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Traces\u003c\/i\u003e is a ranging inquiry into the seductions of memory and travel, the fragile paradox of desire, and the art of making meaning from a life.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Traces\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of memoir and criticism that explores the nature of happiness in art, literature, and philosophy, structured around a season spent in Italy and a reading of Italo Calvino's \u003ci\u003eInvisible Cities\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoised between plummeting depressions, the author considers the intellectual merits of joy and the redeeming promise offered by the beauty, both natural and manmade, that surrounds her. Traveling from Florence to Rome to Venice, \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003edrawing on the fields of physics, history, architecture, and cartography, and spurred by thinkers from Aristotle and Montaigne to Cesare Pavese and Anne Carson, \u003ci\u003eThe Traces\u003c\/i\u003e is an ecstatic, insightful, and original debut. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMairead Small Staid\u003c\/b\u003e is a graduate of the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan and the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Phillips Exeter Academy, where she was the Geoge Bennett Fellow. Her essays have appeared in \u003ci\u003eAGNI\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Southern Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere. She lives in Minnesota.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Strange Object","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50508171444498,"sku":"9781646052004","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f4c15cc2-d2a2-4e1e-9240-8ee78e4c30a9.jpg?v=1730873760","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-traces-an-essay-9781646052004","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}