Curtis Sittenfeld in conversation with John Faherty discussing and signing Show Don’t Tell
A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy.
“[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”—Booklist, starred review
In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.
In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
Curtis Sittenfeld is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels including Rodham, Eligible, Prep, American Wife, and Sisterland, as well as the collection You Think It, I’ll Say It. Her novels have been translated into thirty languages. In addition, her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post Magazine, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, for which she has also been the guest editor. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radio’s This American Life. Her second short story collection Show Don’t Tell is forthcoming from Random House in February 2025.
Executive Director John Faherty still cannot believe his good fortune in getting a job at The Mercantile Library. His nightstand is filled with books because he is a slow reader, but he doggedly marches on with his pattern of one challenging book followed by one fun book. John thinks few people are actually worth biography and fewer yet of autobiography. John loves historical fiction and confesses a weakness for well-written crime procedurals. He has a particular affection for everything written by Kate Atkinson. He received a History degree from the University of Chicago in 1987. John lives with his particularly adorable family in Hyde Park.
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