The Angel Esmeralda

This is Don DeLillo's first collection of short stories, written between 1979 and 2011; in it he represents the wide range of human experience in contemporary America - and forces us to confront the uncomfortable shadows lurking in the background. His characters are plagued by their own deep, often unconscious, longings; they are subjected to shocking violations, exposed to unexpected acts of terror. No matter whether he is focused upon the slums of New York or astronauts in orbit around the Earth, DeLillo chooses never to turn away from the unsettling manner in which humans are brought together. These nine stories describe the extraordinary journey of a great American writer who changed the literary landscape. 'Don DeLillo's richly compressed short stories are the work of a true master . . . In these stories or lucid dreams - sometimes drily shocking or mournfully funny, always masterfully designed - DeLillo himself isolates that stray thought, and makes of it great art.' Guardian