{"product_id":"9781400033492","title":"Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI’ve been a problem baby, a lousy son, a distant brother, an off-putting neighbor, a piss-poor student, a worrisome seatmate, an unreliable employee, a bewildering lover, a frustrating confidante and a crappy husband. Among the things I do pretty well at this point I’d have to list darts, re-closing Stay-Fresh boxes, and staying out of the way. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the self-eulogy offered early on by the unwilling hero of the opening story in this collection, a dazzling array of work in short fiction from a master of the form. The stories in \u003cb\u003eLove and Hydrogen\u003c\/b\u003e—familiar to readers from publications ranging from \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney’s\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eTin House\u003c\/i\u003e—encompass in theme and compassion what an ordinary writer would seem to need several lifetimes to imagine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA frustrated wife makes use of an enterprising illegal-gun salesman to hold her husband hostage; two hapless adult-education students botch their attempts at rudimentary piano but succeed in a halting, awkward romance; a fascinated and murderous Creature welcomes the first human visitors to his Black Lagoon; and in the title story, the stupefyingly huge airship Hindenburg flies to its doom, representing in 1937 mankind's greatest yearning as well as its titanic failure. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGenerous in scope and astonishing in ambition, Shepard’s voice never falters; the virtuosity of \u003cb\u003eLove and Hydrogen\u003c\/b\u003e cements his reputation as, in the words of Rick Bass, “a passionate writer with a razor-sharp wit and an elephantine heart”—in short, one of the most powerful talents at work today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47025254203632,"sku":"9781400033492","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781400033492_p0.jpg?v=1763712686","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781400033492","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}