{"product_id":"preparation-for-the-next-life-isbn-9798217008179","title":"Preparation for the Next Life","description":"\u003cb\u003eNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • WINNER OF THE PEN\/FAULKNER PRIZE • A \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e NOTABLE BOOK • A troubled war veteran and an undocumented immigrant find love while struggling to survive\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA BEST BOOK OF 2014: \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBuzzFeed \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eDizzying in its ambition and exhilarating in its triumph.\u003ci\u003e”—The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrad Skinner, newly returned from three tours in Iraq, hitchhikes to New York hoping to exorcise his demons and reacclimate to American society. Zou Lei, an undocumented immigrant from Central Asia, catches a bus into the city, searching for a way to get by—or at least stay out of jail. Skinner and Zou Lei meet each other in the margins of the metropolis, each finding something they long for in the other, and their unlikely love story becomes the beating heart of this remarkable tale.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet in the underbelly of New York,\u003ci\u003e Preparation for the Next Life \u003c\/i\u003eexposes an America as seen from the fringes of society and, in devastating detail, lays waste to the myth of the American Dream through two of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction. Powerful, realistic, and raw, Atticus Lish’s masterful first novel is one of the most ambitious—and necessary—stories of our time.Praise for \u003ci\u003ePreparation for the Next Life\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“The finest and most unsentimental love story of the new decade.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“[Preparation for the Next Life] has the boundless, epic exhilaration you expect to find only in a writer as mighty as, say, Walt Whitman.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Dizzying in its ambition and exhilarating in its triumph.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“So much of American fiction has become playful, cynical, and evasive. Preparation for the Next Life is the strong antidote to such inconsequentialities.”\u003cbr\u003e—Joy Williams\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As bold and urgent a love story as you’ll read this year.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“ Lovely and soft, tragic and cutting . . . maybe the most surprising novel of the year, for the author’s sudden, astounding appearance on the scene, yes, but more for the temporal details matched and succeeded by glowing tenderness.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003ePreparation for the Next Life\u003c\/i\u003e ... is an astounding first novel about a world so large there is, sometimes, nowhere to go; a world so small the people in it, sometimes, get lost.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A bare-knuckled tale about two lost souls.”\u003cbr\u003e—Oprah.com\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A sledgehammer to the American dream.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the most acclaimed debut novelists of the year.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew York Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“ This novel is nothing less than a triumph, worthy of every heroic adjective a critic could throw. It is a reminder, plain and simple, of what fiction is for.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“ Atticus Lish writes with beauty, striking attention to detail, and painful honesty about life on the margins of America—about the people we don’t see, the places we don’t go.”\u003cbr\u003e—BuzzFeedATTICUS LISH is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe War for Gloria\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePreparation for the Next Life,\u003c\/i\u003e which won the 2015 Pen\/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2016 Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in California.","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233487499493,"sku":"NP9798217008179","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9798217008179.jpg?v=1767735067","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/preparation-for-the-next-life-isbn-9798217008179","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}