Description
"[A] primo story collection by an author best known for his crime fiction." -- "Shelf Awareness" "A beautiful collection about Black men who are, indeed, awkward in their poignant humanity...His portraits of Black men will have profound resonance." -- "Booklist (starred review)" "A tender, sad and gripping collection." -- "AARP Magazine" "A vibrant collection of seventeen luminous stories, many with a focus on downtrodden and troubled protagonists." -- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)" "Each protagonist seems simple and often shallow on the surface, but as the story progresses he unfurls into greater and frankly breathtaking complexity." -- "New York Times Book Review"Thanks to Willis's upbeat delivery-check out his voicing of Billy the Texan-and Mosley's dabs of surrealistic relief (a plastic surgeon's blind date leads to a metaphysical breakthrough; a company delivers messages from the dead), this quirky audiobook always entertains.-- "AudioFile" Walter Mosley is the New York Times author of more than fifty novels in several series, most notably fourteen Easy Rawlins mysteries, several of which have been made into major motion pictures. In 2020 he was a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and from the National Book Foundation. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an Edgar Award, O. Henry Award, the Mystery Writers of Americas Grand Master Award, PEN Americas Lifetime Achievement Award, a Grammy Award, and and several NAACP Image Awards. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages.
Features & Highlights
- MP3 CD Format
- Bestselling author Walter Mosley has proven himself a master of narrative tension, both with his extraordinary fiction and gripping writing for television.
- The Awkward Black Man
- collects seventeen of Mosley's most accomplished short stories to showcase the full range of his remarkable talent.
- Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories—heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved, and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals. In "The Good News Is," a man's insecurity about his weight gives way to a serious illness and the intense loneliness that accompanies it. Deeply vulnerable, he allows himself to be taken advantage of in return for a little human comfort in a raw display of true need. "Pet Fly," previously published in the
- New Yorker
- , follows a man working as a mailroom clerk for a big company—a solitary job for which he is overqualified—and the unforeseen repercussions he endures when he attempts to forge a connection beyond the one he has with the fly buzzing around his apartment. And "Almost Alyce" chronicles failed loves, family loss, alcoholism, and a Zen approach to the art of begging that proves surprisingly effective.
