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To Be a Man  By  cover art

To Be a Man

By: Nicole Krauss
Narrated by: Nicole Krauss
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Publisher's summary

In this dazzling collection of short fiction, the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times best-selling author of The History of Love - “one of America’s most important novelists and an international literary sensation” (New York Times) - explores what it means to be in a couple, and to be a man and a woman in that perplexing relationship and beyond.

In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time.

Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.

The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: Aging parents and newborn babies; young women’s coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold.

To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: Sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength.

©2020 Nicole Krauss (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about To Be a Man

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Not her best book

The listening is negatively influenced by her beautiful but sad reading tone
Many stories are restricted to a restricted to view a well to do young writer too judgemental and sentimental

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luscious short stories

thoroughly enjoy the author's reading of these fine stories. can't wait to listen a second time

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The joy of great literature

What a great pleasure it is to listen the wonderful prose of Nicole Krauss, read by this superb author.

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Most Confused

I kept hoping I could figure out this book but more confused then ever. I will be asking for a refund.

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1 person found this helpful