The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
The Start of Something

The Start of Something

The Selected Stories of Stuart Dybek

Summary

'One of the most soulful writers in America, and a national treasure' George Saunders

Nineteen tales of growing up, wising up, and falling in love, spanning more than three decades of prize-winning work by a North American master of the short story

The Start of Something is a visionary work following the lovelorn beatniks, hard-boiled gangsters and jaded academics of America, journeying through a haze of drugs, dreams and lucid memory. Seductive and freewheeling, each story glittering with the found poetry of the street, this is the definitive introduction to a life’s work by a writer who has re-enchanted short fiction with every new collection.

Reviews

  • One of the most soulful writers in America, and a national treasure
    George Saunders

About the author

Stuart Dybek

Described by the Atlantic as 'one of America's living masters of the short story', Stuart Dybek has been accoladed on all fronts, receiving fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation, a PEN/Malamud Prize, a Lannan Award, a Whiting Writers Award, and four O. Henry Prizes. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared widely in journals such as Harper’s, Poetry, Tin House, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more