“A powerful fiction debut.” - New York Times
“Fine, fine work―a voice that’s new and strong but steeped in the traditions of African-American literature, spoken and written, in a voice already in its quiet, assured, marvelous way, extending those traditions.” - John Edgar Wideman
“Lost in the City is a book of extraordinary power and beauty. The stories are rich and various--some poignant, some grim, some wittily and ironically observed. But above all the book lights up its characters, in their virtues and their failings, with such exactness and sympathy that it is a gift of grace.” - John Casey, National Book Award winning author of Spartina
“The stunning success of Lost in the City . . . is amplified by the knowledge that the world whose news this author brings is precisely the one that many of us who live in urban America are standing in but do not see. . . . He brings a Chekhovian patience, respect, and reserve to the world he describes, and it is, somehow, precisely this old-fashioned quality, brought to bear on the modern African-American community, that makes Lost in the City so bracingly new.” - Newsday
“[A] powerful…generous…collection.” - USA Today
“Original and arresting. . . . [Jones’s] stories will touch chords of empathy and recognition in all readers.” - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“Jones writes knowingly. . . . His insightful portraits . . . make this a poignant and promising first effort.” - Publishers Weekly
“Edward P. Jones has a commanding voice. His collection of stories is arresting.” - Terry McMillan, author of Waiting to Exhale
“Although these experiences will be unfamiliar to many readers, Jones instills humanity in his characters and stories.” - Library Journal
“Beautifully and economically written.” - School Library Journal
“This debut collection of stories pulses with the lifeblood of the forgotten neighborhoods of Washington, D.C. . . . A skillful, elegiac collection.” - Kirkus Reviews
“Jones writes knowingly. . . . His insightful portraits . . . make this a poignant and promising first effort.” - Publishers Weekly
“Poignant. . . . Gripping. . . . [Jones] has a careful ear for dialogue.” - Washington Times
The nation's capital that serves as the setting for the stories in Edward P. Jones's prizewinning collection, Lost in the City, lies far from the city of historic monuments and national politicians. Jones takes the reader beyond that world into the complicated lives of African American men, women, and even children, such as the girl set to begin elementary school in "The First Day," who work against the constant threat of loss to maintain a sense of hope. From "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" to the well-to-do career woman awakened in the night by a phone call that will take her on a journey back to the past, the characters in these stories forge bonds of community as they struggle against the limits of their city to stave off the loss of family, friends, memories, and, ultimately, themselves.
Critically acclaimed upon publication, Lost in the City introduced Jones as an undeniable talent, a writer whose unaffected style is not only evocative and forceful but also filled with insight and poignancy.
About the Author
Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short listed for the National Book Award. His second collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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