Daniel Alarcón is the author of At Night We Walk in Circles, which was a finalist for the 2014 Pen-Faulkner Award, as well as the story collection War by Candlelight, the novel Lost City Radio, and the graphic novel City of Clowns. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Granta, n+1, and Harpers, and he was named one of the New Yorker's "20 Under 40." He is Executive Producer of "Radio Ambulante," distributed by NPR, and is an assistant professor of broadcast journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York.
"These stories explore immigration, family loyalty and redemption.
Alarcón throws his characters into high-stakes situations to draw
out humanity where it seems little hope is left." --The Washington
Post "Alarcón is an empathic observer of the isolated human,
whether isolated by emigration or ambition, blindness or
loneliness, poverty or war. His stories have a reporter's mix of
kindness and detachment, and perhaps as a result, his endings land
like a punch in the gut. . . .He's a brilliant stylist, and there
are plenty of moments in this collection where he's happy to flex.
. . Alarcón writes about them with a grayscale beauty that few
writers can achieve, or try to. His purpose isn't to approve or
condemn, or to liberate. He's writing to show us other people's
lives, and in every case, it's a pleasure to be shown." --NPR
"Showcases his talent as a master storyteller. In 10 vivid,
captivating stories, Alarcón explores immigration, family
relationships, secrets, betrayal, hope, love, heartbreak,
forgiveness, and redemption." --Buzzfeed "Smart, political and
incredibly engaging... Alarcón introduces readers to countless
unforgettable characters along the way." --Nylon (25 Books to Read
this Fall) "Vividly realized characters encounter family secrets,
uncertain futures, ill-fated love and redemption." --Chicago
Tribune "Complicated stories, told with consummate skill." --BBC
"Polished and poetic." --Vanity Fair "Elegant." -- San Francisco
Chronicle "Longlisted for the National Book Award this year, his
new collection, The King Is Always Above the People, delivers on
every level, from the intricate to the inventive, from the subtle
to the sublime... Alarcón's first-person narrators...give the
collection its velocity and vulnerability in the face of love,
lust, fear and cruelty... In dazzling prose, then, The King Is
Always Above the People mulls weighty philosophical questions, but
through intimate personal dramas that Alarcón deftly teases out to
surprise endings, a David Lynch-style menace and surrealism brewing
beneath the surface of everyday lives. There's daring and defiance
in these stories, a beauty that will make your soul soar, as
Alarcón ascends steadily to the top tier of American writers."
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune "Spellbinding... Alarcon has a true gift
for packing details and significance into short scenes. . . Every
portrait is so memorable and sharply written that it lingers in
your mind and tests your ability to confront the intense
predicaments we all find ourselves in at one point or another."
--Cup of Jo "Alarcón employs a remarkable range of styles in the
book...brilliant...Alarcón's poetic prose gives his work a
dreamlike quality." --Newsday "Dark and incisive." --Milwaukee
Journal-Sentinel "Alarcon is a truly impressive writer." --Boston
Globe "A brilliant meditation on personality and place, character
and circumstance, and the decisions small and big (within and
beyond) one's control that can shape a life. Alarcón moves from the
personal to the collective, encompassing stories of migration,
immigration, violence, loss, hope, love." --goop "Superb...
Throughout the collection, Alarcón writes with a spellbinding voice
and creates a striking cast of characters. Each narrative lands
masterfully and memorably, showcasing Alarcón's immense talent."
--Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW) "Dynamic novelist and
journalist Alarcón delivers a collection of loosely affiliated
short stories, each buzzing and alive...Alarcón's gift for
generating real, tangible characters propels readers through his
recognizable yet half-real worlds." --Booklist "A smart and
understated collection that puts some new twists on old-fashioned
identity crises." --Kirkus Praise for Daniel Alarcón "His tales
build with all the power of a Flannery O'Connor story: a gentle
enough start, an innocent setting, and before long the reader is
adrift in a drama that defies the imagination--with characters that
live long after the book is closed." --The Washington Post "Daniel
Alarcón is a storyteller whose wisdom outpaces his youth, and whose
talent is already ablaze." --ZZ Packer "Daniel Alarcón writes about
subterfuge, lies, and the arbitrary recreation of history with a
masterful clarity." --Ann Patchett Praise for At Night We Walk in
Circles "Wise and engaging . . . [a] layered, gorgeously nuanced
work."
--The New York Times Book Review "Consistently compelling . . .
Alarcón's smoothly polished prose [is] flecked with wit and
surprisingly epigraphic phrases . . . with lines that knock the
wind out of you."
--The Washington Post "Outstanding . . . a work that creates a
multilayered world and invites you to enter it."
--Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times "Masterful... A profound
meditation on how identity is less a fixed substance within us than
an ever-shifting performance in reaction to a perceived audience."
--Anthony Marra, San Francisco Chronicle "Masterful . . . a
sterling novel . . . brave, thoughtful and astute . . . elegant in
its construction, it feels perfectly suited to bring Alarcón's
tremendous talent to a wider audience."
--The Miami Herald "Compelling . . . an intellectual puzzle."
--The Boston Globe
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