The Emerald Light in the Air

In his first collection, author of The Afterlife and MacArthur 'Genius' Grant recipient, Donald Antrim, explores the joy and emotional chaos of life as we live it. In elegant, concise prose, Antrim crafts funny, tender stories of men and women disorientated by love, loss and bouts of madness. In 'Another Manhattan' an unfaithful husband goes out to buy flowers for his wife, while, across town in 'Solace' a new couple, both survivors of difficult childhoods, find comfort together in other peoples' apartments. In 'Pond, With Mud' a struggling poet takes his girlfriend's son, Bunny, to the zoo. 'An Actor Prepares' takes place on the edge of a University campus, where a group of students are brought together by their ageing drama professor, whose predilection for pot and crush on his star pupil threaten to upset their performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 'He Knew', Stephen takes his girlfriend on a walk through Manhattan and together they try to ward off their fears and sorrows. And in the title story, 'The Emerald Light in the Air', a bereaved art teacher drives into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, intending to throw away his ex-girlfriend's paintings. Exquisitely composed and executed with great empathy, Antrim's richly detailed fictional worlds are a reflection of our own, as everyday and as wonderful