In Envy Country

Stories

Joan Frank

Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction

Winner of the 2010 Richard Sullivan Prize in Fiction, Joan Frank’s second story collection, In Envy Country, explores the uncertainties and triumphs of women and men in and out of love and marriage, at varying ages and stages of contemporary American life. By turns wry, pained, and amused, In Envy Country investigates those small, complex truths that gain clarity with time and distance. Frank, whose earlier books have been reviewed in The New York Times Book Review and Publisher’s Weekly, sets these stories in Paris, California, and Spain.

In addition to her many published short stories, Joan Frank is the author of two novels, Miss Kansas City, which won the Michigan Literary Fiction Award, and The Great Far Away, and a book of short fiction, Boys Keep Being Born. She lives in Northern California.

ADVANCE PRAISE: “In In Envy Country, Joan Frank shows us ourselves: the way we dress and eat, the places we inhabit, the relationships we forge, squander, hang onto. More, she shows us the dark underpinnings of these solaces and daily strivings, the times we lose what is best in us, or recall it, or realize we never valued it fully enough when we had the chance. Meticulously observed, with sentences that will make you stop and go back for another look.” — Ehud Havazelet, author of Bearing the Body and Like Never Before

“These stories each have a wonderful, intimate feel, as though the narrator is whispering in our ear at the start of each one, ‘You won’t believe what I heard.’ Written with authority and intelligence, they are layered and subtle, and we believe them all, gaining a new appreciation for the idea that what appears to be one thing—is many others. They are serious, and yet take us back to the sense of discovery; reading them is fun.” — Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge and Abide with Me

“Admirers of the work of Anita Brookner will rejoice to discover an American literary cousin. Nothing escapes Joan Frank; her stories of not-so-innocent bystanders gleam with subtlety, intelligence, and sly wit.” — Brian Morton, author of Breakable You and Starting Out in the Evening

“A worldly collection in all the best ways; a writer of unusual wit, sophistication and psychological insight; reading these pages is a pleasure.” — Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street