num_pages: 240
description: 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 new-born babies; young womens 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 Krausss stories are at once startling and deeply moving but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength. 
language: English
title: To Be a Man: Stories
publisher: Harper Perennial