{"title":"Books by Jim Shepard","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781529415094","title":"Phase Six","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Jim Shepard is a fiction writer of peculiar but tantalizing gifts.\"\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village, and from there Shepard's harrowing and deeply moving story follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC--Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an MD and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine--moving from the Greenland hospital overwhelmed with the first patients to a Level 4 high-security facility in the Rocky Mountains--does what she can to sustain Aleq.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBoth a chamber piece of multiple intimate perspectives and a more omniscient glimpse into the megastructures (political, cultural, and biological) that inform such a disaster, the novel reminds us of the crucial bonds that form in the midst of catastrophe, as a child and several hyper-educated adults learn what it means to provide adequate support for those they love. In the process, they celebrate the precious worlds they might lose, and help to shape others that may survive.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303409398133,"sku":"9781529415094","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529415094_db526986-40a3-4023-aaa1-4fbb16dc00ad.jpg?v=1786023445"},{"product_id":"9781786485069","title":"The World to Come","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA fantastic writer - compassionate, funny and fearless' George Saunders\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'One of the US's finest writers' according to Joshua Ferris, Jim Shepard now delivers a new collection that spans borders and centuries with unrivalled mastery. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese ten stories ring with voices as diverse as those belonging to Arctic explorers in history's most nightmarish expedition, the Montgolfier brothers competing to be the first man to fly, and two American frontierswomen whose passionate connection is severed by jealous husbands and a deadly snowstorm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn each case the personal is the political as these humans, while falling in love or negotiating marital pitfalls or simply coming to terms with their own failings, face the tidal wave of nature's indifference and cruelty. History has swept them from our sympathy; Jim Shepard has reached into the past and sought them out.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his first collection to be published in the UK, this celebrated master of the short story displays his formidable acuity in imagining these wildly different worlds, and what our various lives feel like in the grip of catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312867881333,"sku":"9781786485069","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786485069_157d5fc1-7b48-4974-88b4-b53e98178c40.jpg?v=1786026093"},{"product_id":"the-queen-of-bad-influences","title":"The Queen of Bad Influences","description":"\u003cb\u003eTwelve compressed masterworks from this great American writer of catastrophe fiction, in which lives are upended as much by broken hearts as by collapsing dams, hideously mismanaged wars, gargantuan wildfires, and apocalyptic storms\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Jim Shepard is a fantastic writer—compassionate, funny, and fearless—[whose work] does what great writing always does: inspires us to look more closely at life, and be more caring.” —George Saunders\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"A deft, audacious artist.\" —Norman Rush, National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eMating\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Richard Ford’s view, Jim Shepard’s “talent is so various and canny he can write about seemingly anything and make it thrilling to us,” and in these stories spanning six centuries we find viscerally evoked worlds as wildly diverse as a mercenary’s corner of 16th century Madrid, a young apprentice’s pre-Revolutionary Boston, and Edward Hyde’s London.  With civil engineers and destitute veterans we encounter the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida, and we read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boon, North Carolina (“Three privates are currently sleeping soundly on our porch in their muddy blankets”) and her great love, William, on the march in Tennessee (“I can’t write much for it seems we are looking for a fight every minute”), while the title story introduces us to the stubborn Constance, who had “no gift for flirtation” with men, preferring Minna, her best friend and “queen of bad influences,” as their vexed devotion unfolds in part on the liner \u003ci\u003eLusitania\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith irony, compassion, and withering humor, these stories evoke the terrible ease with which cataclysm, human-engineered or otherwise, can sweep away all we find most precious, and expose those limitations we’ve refused to address. At the same time, Shepard celebrates what is best in us: the love and friendships we sustain, and the passions and grace we grant one another.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57499244691829,"sku":"9780593804414","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780593804414.jpg?v=1786694563"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jim-shepard.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}