Kate Riley is not the sort of heroine we meet in most American novels. Self-centered, shape-shifting, driven from one man to another and one city to the next, she is all too real—but not at all the loyal and steady homebody of idealized womanhood. When we first encounter her, Kate (or Katherine, or Kate of the Prairie, or Katrina) is about to undergo exploratory brain surgery for a condition she herself has fabricated. Sobered by the gravity of the procedure, she commences a journey of memory that takes us back to the Saskatchewan village where she grew up and to the singular event that altered her forever and irrevocably set the course of her life. From her childhood, in which she was held captive to a mother gone mad, through her adult life, which unfolds as a mesmerizing sequence of men, abandoned children, and perpetual movement, Kate’s story is one of desperation and remarkable invention, a strangely American tale, brilliantly narrated by one of our most original writers.

Because a Fire Was in My Head (Flyover Fiction)

Literature & Fiction

Stegner, Lynn.

Literary

University Of Nebraska Press

Kate Riley is not the sort of heroine we meet in most American novels. Self-centered, shape-shifting, driven from one man to another and one city to the next, she is all too real but not at all the loyal and steady homebody of idealized womanhood. When we first encounter her, Kate is about to undergo exploratory brain surgery for a condition she herself has fabricated. Sobered by the gravity of the procedure, she commences a journey of memory that takes us back to the Saskatchewan village where she grew up and to the singular event that altered her forever and irrevocably set the course of her life. From her childhood, in which she was held captive to a mother gone mad, through her adult life, which unfolds as a mesmerizing sequence of men, abandoned children, and perpetual movement, Kate’s story is one of desperation and remarkable invention, a strangely American tale, narrated by one of our most original writers.

United States

Bison Books

In the space of less than a year, three people in a small New England village make life-defining decisions. When a stranger moves into Harrow -- a stranger without a past and without a conscience -- old conflicts flare, threatening familiar foundations, and exposing possibilities of new ones. In the tradition of Winesburg, Ohio, Lynn Stegner takes the linked story form to new heights as she explores the interactions of circumstance and temperament in determining people's choices in the face of their unsettled issues. In "The Hired Man," Ray Rinaldi, a teenager running his alcoholic father's farm, agonizes over his family obligations and his opportunity to escape the stifling confines of Harrow. As spring arrives he hires a stranger, Sam Chase, to help with farm chores. Spring gives way to the arrival of summer residents in the title piece, "Pipers at the Gates of Dawn," in which Dru Hammond wrestles with her growing sense of disconnection from her husband and her concern over the disturbing behavior of her youngest son. In "Indian Summer," Jack Sayers, a fiercely independent former summer resident now settled in Harrow, tells his college-bound nephew the story of his itinerant life but leaves out something important. Stegner's acute and rich writing reveals, in profoundly original ways, the troubled fault-lines of the relationships that constitute each novella. What happens as Chase appears twice more links the novellas in unexpected and powerful ways, giving all three stories, their characters, and the town of Harrow itself a compelling unity that readers will recall long after the book is finished.

Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: A Triptych (Hardscrabble Books)

Univ Pr of New England

For All the Obvious Reasons is Lynn Stegner’s superb collection of nine, remarkably distinct tales of passion, clear-eyed wisdom, and honesty honed to a cutting edge. These are stories the reader can’t shake: A woman living a marital shadow-life realizes that her long compensating heart has begun to ominously decompensate. An affluent New Yorker becomes a hoarder to escape a future he cannot bear to take up. A baby dies in a miasma of sibling resentments and from that, the secrets of culpability unravel. A construction worker and a bereaved young neighbor together find a way to be in a broken world. And in the beautifully moving narrative that closes the volume, a story about the depth of goodness and duty, and of the profound love they both define and prevent. From the wild rivers of British Columbia to the cement jungle of Manhattan, Stegner pulls us from our own worlds into her own. With luminous particulars and in richly orchestrated language, these stories sound the vibrant, sometimes anguished music that composes human lives. These stories first appeared in the following publications: Catch and Release” from The Best of Carve Magazine and winner of a Raymond Carver Short Story Award, among other honors. The New Sister” from New West. The Boat on the Lake” in Five Points. Mona’s Coming” in Stoneslide. Rogue” from The Tusculum Review and winner of the 2013 Prize in Fiction. For All the Obvious Reasons” from Gival Press and winner of the 2013 Short Story Award Two have not been published previously: "In the Not-Too-Different Future" "The Anarchic Hand" Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fictionnovels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

For All the Obvious Reasons: And Other Stories

Arcade Publishing

Anne McBain, a 27-year-old scientist, must learn to overcome the years of incest she experienced as a child

Undertow: A Novel

Baskerville Pub

Undertow

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

Books by Stegner, Lynn.

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

Because a Fire Was in My Head (Flyover Fiction)

Because a Fire Was in My Head (Flyover Fiction)

Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: A Triptych (Hardscrabble Books)

For All the Obvious Reasons: And Other Stories

Undertow: A Novel

Undertow