Email a friendDelicate Edible Birds
“It takes only a few pages to see that Ms. Groff can write—really write.”
—New York Observer
From Lauren Groff, author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling first novel The Monsters of Templeton, comes Delicate Edible Birds, one of the most striking short fiction debuts in recent years. Here are nine stories of astonishing insight and variety, each revealing a resonant drama within the life of a twentieth-century American woman.
In “Sir Fleeting,” a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. In “Blythe,” an attorney who has become a stay-at-home mother takes a night class in poetry and meets another full-time mother, one whose charismatic brilliance changes everything. In “The Wife of the Dictator,” that eponymous wife (“brought back…from [the dictator’s] last visit to America”) grows more desperately, menacingly isolated every day. In “Delicate Edible Birds”, a group of war correspondents—a lone, high-spirited woman among them—falls sudden prey to a brutal farmer while fleeing Nazis in the French countryside. In “Lucky Chow Fun,” Groff returns us to Templeton, the setting of her first book, for revelations about the darkness within even that idyllic small town.
In some of these stories, enormous changes happen in an instant. In others, transformations occur across a lifetime—or several lifetimes. Throughout the collection, Groff displays particular and vivid preoccupations. Crime is a motif—sex crimes, a possible murder, crimes of the heart. Love troubles recur; they’re in every story—love in alcoholism, in adultery, in a flood, even in the great flu epidemic of 1918. Some of the love has depths, which are understood too late; some of the love is shallow, and also understood too late. And mastery is a theme—Groff’s women swim and baton twirl, become poets, or try and try again to achieve the inner strength to exercise personal freedom.
Overall, these stories announce a notable new literary master. Dazzlingly original and confident, Delicate Edible Birds will further Groff’s growing reputation as one of the foremost talents of her generation.
From Lauren Groff, author of the critically acclaimed
Editor’s Note:
“I first read one of Lauren’s short stories, “L. De Bard and Aliette,” when MONSTERS was on submission. Set in the turn of the century in New York City during the flu pandemic, the story was tender and romantic and dark and sad, and it stayed with me long after I finished reading it. I remember thinking this author can do anything! And she can. This extraordinary collection showcases one of the best young voices in literature today.”
—Sarah Landis
For The Monsters of Templeton:
“This is a fabulous book. Groff is reminiscent of Carol Shields, only more whimsical and inventive.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Lauren Groff hits a home run in her first at-bat, with a novel that is intriguingly constructed and compulsively readable.”
—Denver Post
“Delightful and challenging…[Groff] is a talent to watch and celebrate.”
—USA Today
“This is a fabulous book. Groff is reminiscent of Carol Shields, only more whimsical and inventive.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A bold and beautiful hybrid of a book.”
—Lorrie Moore
“I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel come to an end.”
—Stephen King
“Groff’s multilayered saga both thrills and delights with its poignant, breathtaking prose.”
—Entertainment Weekly, (A)
“Groff’s lively and poetic debut novel…[is] sweet and slightly wry, poignant yet beautifully understated.”
—Boston Globe
“Delicate Edible Birds is truly remarkable, these stories encompass every woman and all women in some ways. I looked forward to meeting each and every one of them and getting to know them faults and all. Lauren Groff has created a series of stories that flow like one taking you in completely and leaving you breathless.”
—googoopea
