Paradise Road (Drue Heinz Literature Prize, 67)

By Kirk Nesset

Winner of the 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

The stories in Kirk Nesset's Paradise Road vividly examine the various pitfalls, both physical and emotional, we encounter and suffer trying to find lasting meaning in love. Stark and unsentimental, they feature the chiaroscuro of particular worlds and particular lives, infused with the yearning and muted desperation that comes after passion has bent us, burned us, and cast us aside. \u201cNothing comes and goes without a trace, \u201d muses the narrator of \u201cThe Prince of Perch Fishing, \u201d the collection's opening tale. \u201cIn this world there are consequences for everything.\u201d Such stories speak to the fleeting yet monumental moments of our lives, which catch us off guard, unveiling and unsettling us, each leaving its indelible mark. The stories also offer paths, paved or unpaved, leading out of the ashes, out of the wilds of upheaval and betrayal and pain. Story by story, Paradise Road guides us deeply into ourselves--into new kinds of awareness, if not transformation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822943158
• ISBN13: 9780822943150
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Kirk Nesset's fiction cuts unnervingly to the bone, enchantingly, doggedly, chillingly, and honestly

Passages like "nothing comes and goes without a trace," and "But what hurts is knowing you do it, and knowing you know, and knowing you haven't learned," poignantly and yet, cogently cajole us to reckon with life's intangible beauties, travesties, and uncertainties. They exigently whisper in our ear-urging us to divest ourselves of the trivial, temporal, transient nonsense with which we concern ourselves, and over which we lose sleep and sweat and blood and tears everyday-to focus on what matters, learn from our mistakes, and never give up hope. "Paradise Road" is a place everyone should journey through, truly, at least once, to really taste what it means to live, and know who you really ought to be...