20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker [Paperback]

Deborah Treisman (Editor)

Book Description

Release date: November 23, 2010

In June 2010, the editors of The New Yorker announced to widespread media coverage their selection of “20 Under 40”—the young fiction writers who are, or will be, central to their generation. The magazine published twenty stories by this stellar group of writers over the course of the summer. They are now collected for the first time in one volume.

The range of voices is extraordinary. There is the lyrical realism of Nell Freudenberger, Philipp Meyer, C. E. Morgan, and Salvatore Scibona; the satirical comedy of Joshua Ferris and Gary Shteyngart; and the genre-bending tales of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, and Téa Obreht. David Bezmozgis and Dinaw Mengestu offer clear eyed portraits of immigration and identity; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, ZZ Packer, and Wells Tower offer voice-driven, idiosyncratic narratives. Then there are the haunting sociopolitical stories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Daniel Alarcón, and Yiyun Li, and the metaphysical fantasies of Chris Adrian, Rivka Galchen, and Karen Russell.

Each of these writers reminds us why we read. And each is aiming for greatness: fighting to get and to hold our attention in a culture that is flooded with words, sounds, and pictures; fighting to surprise, to entertain, to teach, and to move not only us but generations of readers to come. A landmark collection, 20 Under 40 stands as a testament to the vitality of fiction today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The sweep of the storytellers included on this list is extraordinary . . . These 20 stories reassure us of the vitality of fiction today and are a testament to its necessity.” —Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune

 

“One volume, then, that hits it out of the park.” —Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News

 

“[T]his anthology is oddly uplifting and often transcends both charm and precociousness. If this is the future, the kids are all right.” —William J. Cobb, Dallas Morning News

 

“One can't predict how these writers will handle whatever fame and fortune come their way. But the talent on display - and what its editors refer to as the "clear sense of ambition" characterizing this volume's best selections - will spur any reader to reach back for what these writers already have done, while eagerly awaiting their work to come.” —Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

 

“In 1999, the last time The New Yorker compiled a list of young writers destined to shake up the literary landscape, the names included Jonathan Franzen, Jhumpa Lahiri, Junot Diaz, Sherman Alexie, David Foster Wallace, Edwidge Danticat, Michael Chabon and George Saunders, all of whom subsequently made tremendous impressions on the world of arts and culture. There’s no telling if the new crop of authors featured in 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker will fare as well, but there’s great promise in most of their stories gathered here . . . 20 Under 40 offers a unique perspective into the future of fiction.”   —Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

 

“Of the 20 writers whose short fiction Treisman has gathered here, all are extremely accomplished, even gifted, and some already have a following of devoted readers.” —Alan Cheuse, NPR.org

 

“If anyone knows who's who in fiction, it’s The New Yorker. So we're loving their new compilation of stories from their buzzy ‘20 Under 40’— the young writers whose names will be on everyone’s lips in the next few years, if they’re not already.” —Marie Claire

 

“We seem to have entered a golden age of the short-story anthology, if the proliferation of annual and themed collections is any indication.” —Kirkus Reviews

 

“A terrific guide to good reading today. Get even if you subscribe to The New Yorker; great for reading groups, hungry literati, students, and naysayers who must be shown that fiction is not dead.” —Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

About the Author

Deborah Treisman has been the fiction editor of The New Yorker since 2003, and was deputy fiction editor for five years prior to that.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Original edition (November 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374532877
• ISBN-13: 978-0374532871
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor Editor's Choice or a Reflection of Society? Probably Both. August 3, 2011

By J. Tyler

Format:Paperback

I read this book eagerly, then hopefully, and finally only with determination to finish what I had started. I would finish this book even though I didn't want to. Quick background info: The book is composed of 20 short stories written by various authors from as varying backgrounds as could be possible. Selections were made by editors of the "New Yorker."

Good: The stories make you think. They present the world in a challenging way. Time after time, characters in the stories make startling decisions that, almost inevitably, make you hope you would do better, be wiser.

Bad: Either the editors that chose the selections have a terrificly depressing world-view, or the current state of literary fiction and the people who comprise it have a negative bent. Without exception, every story in this book is depressing, and in some cases, horrifically so. There is no light to the darkness, no good to the bad. Humans are inherently mean, self-centered, evil, and devoid of concious, and in the rare case that an author in this compilation presents a character who is not those things, then that character is devastatingly ruined, either by external forces or people. Don't get me wrong, life is tragic, and in any good story tragedy must occur. But the good authors, and especially the great authors are always able to exact some salvation for the protagonists. Think "Anna Karenina" - even in her death a sense of redemption can be found. Think of "Oliver Twist." The scope of tragedy in that story outstrips any in this book, but in "Twist" not all is lost. Reading this book, though, there radiates only bleakness. Only tragedy, only horrible decisions. You don't even get the pleasure of seeing the failures engender learning. All but two of the stories are tragic, purely for tragedy's sake. And frankly, though I am by no means a major in modern english literature, the writing is standard, prosaic. Hardly evocative, barely setting the scene in most cases. Hollow. I hope the future of literary fiction doesn't rest on these twenty author's shoulders alone. No offense to them, and not having read any of their other works, I am hardly informed. But if these short stories are a reflection of their larger works and these twenty authors represent the best that can be harvested from the "up-and-comers," then the future of literary fiction is a drab, dark, despairing world indeed.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Stories March 21, 2013

By grandma flo

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Each Story is by a wonderful new author and you get the perspective of these authors from
different countries. I enjoyed them very much

4.0 out of 5 stars So You Can See What the Kids These Days Are Up To July 30, 2012

By Duane Schneider

Format:Paperback

People are always going to quibble over the choices of whom to include in an anthology of this sort, but overall I think the New Yorker editors and Deborah Treisman in particular did a great job with their selections. I'm somewhat surprised Nam Le isn't on the list, but his exclusion doesn't diminish the collection's value. As I read, I reminded myself that this was not a best-of set; these are not necessarily the writers' strongest stories but are instead an introduction to their work. One would hope these authors' best fiction lies ahead of them. As Treisman alludes to in the introduction, these pieces may have simply been those available at the time the anthology was assembled. (Take Wells Tower, for instance, whose story "The Landlord" is good but doesn't seem as rich in its language or as nuanced as the stories in his collection "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned.") That said, there are some amazing stories here. Chris Adrian continues to mine the themes of children and religion with wonderful results. Joshua Ferris seems determined to be labeled a novelist, understandably, but he's also an incredible story writer. In his story here, "The Pilot," as well as in another story published by the New Yorker, "The Dinner Party," he takes characters in crisis mode and thrusts them into social situations; the resulting awkwardness creates a palpable tension in the stories. The standout pieces in this collection appear to be those that thrive on detail and character to evoke a specific time and place: "What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone," by Philipp Meyer; "Blue Water Djinn," by Tea Obreht; "Dayward," by ZZ Packer; "The Dredgeman's Revelation," by Karen Russell; and "The Kid," by Salvatore Scibona. These are the stories that form the heart of the collection. Interestingly, each of them centers on a child or adolescent. The writers sense the vulnerability of children, their innocence, the lengths we go to to protect them (Packer) or the repercussions of abandoning them (Scibona). Overall, a collection well worth reading, but I would urge you to approach it as a Whitman's sampler of style and themes, not as a greatest hits collection.