Nothing Right

Short Stories

By Antonya Nelson

A collection of stories from Antonya Nelson, one of the New Yorker's "twenty young fiction writers of the new millenium", an unflinching glimpse into contemporary family drama.

Set in the American southwest, this collection of stories feature characters transitioning from adolescence, to young adulthood, to middle age. Their personal conflicts parallel those of contemporary Americans, post-911, as these artfully rendered characters try to keep themselves intact individually-- and as part of a family-- in the new millennium. Moving and evocative, Nothing Right explores the tenuous relationship between the individual self and the communal self.

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Praise for Antonya Nelson:

I scan the tables of contents of magazines, looking for Antonya Nelson's name, hoping that she has decided to bless us again. She's absolutely one of my favorites among story writers today, and I envy the reader who has yet to discover her work."—Michael Chabon

"Nelson has a pitch-perfect ear for the rhythms and unspoken subtexts of domestic life, and especially for the ways a family balances old grudges with the need to practice forgiveness."—Francine Prose

"Any lover of realistic narrative fiction about actual and unglamorous people will be greatly rewarded by the work of Antonya Nelson. Her voice is sure, her wit is quick, her observations continually resonate and her honesty is unwavering."—Dave Eggers

"We see clearly what it is that the best young writers have to offer—a kind of pizzazz, the love of undercurrent, of voyeuristic intensity, a bewildered fascination with ritual as it has been undermined in our time, yet sustained, too, in an oddly moving way."—Raymond Carver

"I've been a Toni fan ever since I read a story of hers called "The Salad" on my second or third day of graduate school. I read her newest collection so fast the pages are singed."—David Foster Wallace

Reviews for Nothing Right:

Nothing Right is a wild ride, and one of the very best books of the year. Nelson's method is pure realism-no trendy experiments in form or postmodern hijinks here-and yet these 11 stories are deliriously, satisfyingly intricate.Nelson works the material like a conductor.Nelson's sentences are long and insight-studded, almost Jamesian in their complexity, but she's good for a quick punchline, too." — Taylor Antrim, Daily Beast. Read review.

"Nelson, an astute observer of everyday conflicts, has skillfully mapped out life in this unforgettable collection, and sooner or later a reader will run into herself in a story, the character's troubles as real as the reader's own. Still, even more wonder comes when one realizes that Nelson, witty yet sympathetic, articulates our pains and troubles better than we do. Could it be that she knows us better than we know ourselves?"—San Fransisco Chronicle Read full review.

"(Antonya Nelson's) latest book, the collection "Nothing Right" is vintage Nelson: It's full of contrarian views of modern life, swift eviscerations of simpering morality, the complicated love betweenparents and children, brinkmanship with psychosis and everydaybreakdowns, a culture that makes adolescents of us all, a lot of alcohol and a smattering of infidelity."—Los Angeles Times. Read full review

"Nelson's insight and language are obviously and simply gorgeous. There is not a single thing wrong with Nothing Right."—Julie WittesSchlack, The Boston Globe.Read full review.

"Antonya Nelson's NOTHING RIGHT [targets] the romantic poseurs in all of us."—Vogue

"You have only to read Antonya Nelson's new story collection, Nothing Right, to appreciate her talent". Nelson, unlike so many writers today, is not serving up magic realism in her stories. Her magic, in fact, is their powerful realism: deeply understood, beautifully expressed."—Carol Goldberg, Hartford Courant Read full review.