{"product_id":"9780060750923","title":"Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame","description":"\u003cp\u003eA writer's public life is not — as is often thought — a round of glamorous parties, prize-acceptance speeches, and triumphant readings to amphitheatres full of loyal, cheering fans; it is, in fact, a grim treadmill of humiliation and neglect. Mortification sets the record straight, once and for all. A collection of seventy specially commissioned contributions — true stories of public indignity by some of our finest living writers — this is a celebration of defeat, and a chance to indulge in that most malicious of pleasures: schadenfreude.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou will read about dashed hopes and collapsing bowels, thwarted desire and unimpeded drinking; of fans queuing up for Stephen King's blood; Margaret Drabble bidding at a mock slave auction in Dallas; Louis de Bernières and the S\u0026amp;M prostitute; A. L. Kennedy's disintegrating trousers; William Boyd endorsing Shake 'n' Vac; Margaret Atwood's on-air brush with the Colostomy Association; about an author wanting to kill a member of her audience or another succeeding (accidentally) in killing his host's beloved pet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese are the best kind of stories: those told against the teller. While readers may be transfixed by the baroque twists of fate, the toe-curling embarrassments, the body's betrayals, and the mind's vanishing acts, they will also wonder at these writers' brave acknowledgment of their own vulnerability and the willingness to expose their shame, a second time, before the public.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47046165627120,"sku":"9780060750923","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780060750923_p0.jpg?v=1763619111","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780060750923","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}