{"product_id":"9781634509473","title":"Hard to Be Good: Stories","description":"In his first collection of short fiction, Bill Barich gives us cause to celebrate a prose stylist who can gracefully cross the boundaries of genre. As stated by Anne Tyler, \u003ci\u003eHard to Be Good\u003c\/i\u003e is so large and complete that you tend to look up at the end and find yourself surprised that it’s still the same day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSet in the American West, as are three other of the seven stories in this book, it is about the unselfconscious struggle for wholeness in a divided family. Its adolescent protagonist moves from innocence to experience in the course of a summer vacation with his mother and her third husband, and the result is satisfying, rather than harrowing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe attempt to make signification relationships cohere, to weather the transformation of innocence, informs all the stories in this book, and in Barich’s worlds the outcome is often good—knowledge does not always lead to hopelessness. Highly disparate mothers covering on a couple in Idaho Falls (“Where the Mountains Are”) have much to teach and learn, a nineteen-year-old American studying in Florence accepts the surprising human complications of an outsider’s great pensione adventure (“Caravaggio”) . . . and that’s just a few of Barich’s brilliant stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHard to Be Good\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of real feeling, breadth, and narrative movement. As Frederick Exley wrote, “Barich is a splendidly gifted writer.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSkyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, 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 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Skyhorse Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47161600344304,"sku":"9781634509473","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781634509473_p0.jpg?v=1763680758","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781634509473","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}