“To be a Man” by Nicole Krauss

This is a selection of ten short stories originally published over an eighteen year period in various journals. Nicole Krauss is a very gifted writer, her last novel “Forest Dark” has been a popular selection by our customers ever since it came out in paperback four years ago. Her much earlier previous book to that “Great House” was my Book of the Year way back in 2011. So these stories straddle that time period.

They are diverse in nature and principal characters; all as ever, with this author, have an American-Israeli angle and are primarily located in those two countries.

If you are looking for a good selection of stories this could well suit. It was one that I have dipped in and out of between reading other books. Sometimes I end up reading a full book of short stories from cover to cover, though this was not one of those that by no means diminishes their enjoyment and contents.

In fact the writing is such that you want to savour each narrative; each character has real depth, each story imaginable locations.