A collection of funny, absurd tales introduces an aging actor who must protect his neighbors from his own jewel-thief father, a data-entry worker who blows her inheritance on a Princess Diana gown, and two star students who murder the school bully. 25,000 first printing.

Who I Was Supposed To Be

Literature & Fiction

Perabo, Susan

United States

Simon&Schuster

When his father, the captain of the local fire squad, rescues a teenager from underneath a collapsed home, he is hailed as a hero, but when the media coverage wanes, the parades fade, and the TV movie is finished, twelve-year-old Paul Tucker finds that his father and his life have been forever altered, in a richly textured novel of family, honor, and duty. 30,000 first printing.

The Broken Places

Behind every face in Who I Was Supposed to Be, is a singular quirk to explore, a peculiarity to celebrate. In Susan Perabo's world, nothing can be taken for granted: here, a retired grocer takes up jewel theft in his twilight years; a data processor squanders her inheritance on one of Princess Diana's gowns; a mugging victim feigns amnesia to win back his wife. In the tradition of Lorrie Moore, Susan Perabo's slightly off-center lens looks hard at the banal and the bizarre, and at the human condition, where she finds extraordinary magic within the smallest of gestures. Sharply written and overlaid with a mischievous wit, Who I Was Supposed to Be is an unforgettable homage to laughter, love, and wonder.

Who I Was Supposed to Be: Stories

When an abandoned farmhouse collapses in Casey, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Paul Tucker's father, Sonny, and the other Casey firemen attempt a dangerous rescue to reach a teenager buried under the rubble. Sonny himself is trapped by a secondary collapse and Paul and his mother fear the worst, but Sonny -- a second-generation fireman beloved in town -- emerges hours later, carrying the maimed body of sixteen-year-old Ian Finch. The rescue of this swastika-tattooed hoodlum -- who may have brought the house down while building bombs -- becomes a validation of all things American and true, and Sonny is immediately hailed as a national hero. But Ian's continued presence in Sonny's life creates a new set of hurdles for young Paul -- and his mother and his hometown -- to overcome.

The Broken Places: A Novel

S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books

Behind every face in Who I Was Supposed to Be is a singular quirk to explore, a peculiarity to celebrate. In Susan Perabo's world, nothing can be taken for granted: here, a retired grocer takes up jewel theft in his twilight years; a data processor squanders her inheritance on one of Princess Diana's gowns; a mugging victim feigns amnesia to win back his wife. In the tradition of Lorrie Moore, Susan Perabo's slightly off-center lens looks hard at the banal and the bizarre, and at the human condition, where she finds extraordinary magic within the smallest of gestures. Sharply written and overlaid with a mischievous wit, Who I Was Supposed to Be is an unforgettable homage to laughter, love, and wonder.

Who I Was Supposed to Be: Short Stories

Marysue Rucci Books

A Beverly Hills actor must protect his neighbours from his own father, who has taken up jewel theft in his old age. A bored wife spends all her inheritance at an auction. Two straight-A students murder the school bully. This collection of stories draws on the bizarre and the hilarious.

Explaining Death to the Dog

Contemporary

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

When a popular middle-school girl is abducted in broad daylight by a masked man, the victim's rival, Meredith, struggles with terror while their community organizes vigils and searches. By the author of The Broken Places. (general fiction). Simultaneous.

The Fall of Lisa Bellow (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic)

Thorndike Press Large Print

The Fall of Lisa Bellow

Simon & Schuster AU

“Darkly beautiful stories about love and loss and every gradation between. Each one is suffused with astonishing wit and tenderness. Well worth the wait!” —Jenny Offill, New York Times bestselling author of Department of Speculation “Reminiscent of George Saunders…These ingenious and lovable stories crack open the world.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) From the celebrated author of Who I Was Supposed to Be comes twelve beautiful short stories celebrating the everyday truths of people facing unusual or challenging situations…often of their own making. In Why They Run the Way They Do, critically acclaimed author Susan Perabo illustrates the triumphs and tragedies of daily life. Perfectly distilled into moments of sharp humor and poignancy, her latest collection features ordinary people in sometimes extraordinary circumstances. Two young students try their hand at blackmail upon learning an illicit secret; a woman grapples with feelings of betrayal after discovering her spinster sister’s pregnancy test; the ghost of a couple’s past comes back to haunt them in the form of their toddler’s stuffed toy. Weaving the banal and bizarre together, “Perabo’s clear, wry sentences meld a prose style that's reminiscent of Raymond Carver’s with a sensibility that's informed by People” (The New York Times). Here, this “literary talent” (The Boston Globe) captures the human condition through struggles that are quiet and grand; dark and provocative. Brilliantly crafted, Why They Run the Way They Do is ultimately an homage to the philosophy that life without humor is no life at all.

Why They Run the Way They Do: Stories

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perabo, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Perabo, Susan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perabo, Susan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Who I Was Supposed To Be

The Broken Places

Who I Was Supposed to Be: Stories

The Broken Places: A Novel

Who I Was Supposed to Be: Short Stories

Explaining Death to the Dog

The Broken Places

The Fall of Lisa Bellow (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic)

The Fall of Lisa Bellow

Why They Run the Way They Do: Stories