18 Comments

Hello from Rochester, NY. I'm enjoying your newsletter for all the insights and dogs :)

Some fav short novels: FOSTER and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan are stunning. Two recent novellas that I love are My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson and Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans. Another good oldie: Reunion by Fred Uhlman.

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My favorite short novel is Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. I read it every year!

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Oooh, that sounds like an intriguing workshop. Favorite short novel: Who Will Run the Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore. Others that have stuck with me: Hotel Iris (Yoko Ogawa) and Ghosts (Cesar Aira).

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A few favorites......Fight Night or anything by Miriam Toews, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid, We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida.

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I love reading the other suggestions. I think I have to go with a master. . . The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. I know he is a DWM (dead white male) but the novella is a lesson in craft.

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I would add to the great suggestions already here in the comments: Ship Fever, Andrea Barrett's brilliant novella in her collection of the same name. And Sarah Moss' Ghost Wall, The Fell, and Summerwater. (The Fell is my fave, I think.)

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One of my favorite novellas is THE PEARL by Steinbeck.

I loved the phrase you used, “wish to be known”. It is so true; we all desire connections and deep understanding. Thank you for pointing that out.

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