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A Manual for Cleaning Women

Selected Stories
By Lucia Berlin
Series: Picador Collection
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
A Manual for Cleaning Women is a collection of 43 short stories by Lucia Berlin that delve into the rich, itinerant life of the author. These tales explore the drinking, mess, pain, beauty, and fleeting moments of grace she experienced with a voice that is witty, anarchic, and deeply compassionate. Berlin's prose captures the sudden exaltation in ordinary lives, shining a light on working-class and marginalised people with honesty and a unique magnetism.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This collection is ideal for readers who appreciate poignant, character-driven fiction featuring complex, flawed lives and a style that blends toughness with grace. Fans of American literary fiction, short stories by writers like Raymond Carver or Alice Munro, and those interested in stories that explore working-class and marginalised experiences will find this book especially compelling.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

This collection of raw and remarkable short fiction saw Lucia Berlin, little known in her lifetime, finally become lauded as an important figure in American letters

Selected stories by 'literary genius' Lucia Berlin.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF PICADOR BOOKS

The world just goes along. Nothing much matters, you know? I mean really matters, but then sometimes, just for a second, you get this grace, this belief that it does matter, a whole lot.

With an introduction from Lydia Davis

Lucia Berlin's stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women make for one of the most remarkable unsung collections in twentieth-century American fiction.

With extraordinary honesty and magnetism, Lucia Berlin invites us into her rich, itinerant life: the drink and the mess and the pain and the beauty and the moments of surprise and of grace, with a voice that is witty, anarchic, compassionate, and completely unique.

Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Series: Picador Collection

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics have lauded Berlin's work as deserving of the same recognition as Jean Rhys and Raymond Carver, with The Independent and The New York Times praising her authentic voice and literary emergence. The Guardian noted her mordant humour, colloquial style, and striking ability to shift tones unexpectedly. Her stories grab readers unflinchingly, demanding attention and empathy.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529077223

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 February 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Picador

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 27.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 297g

Pages: 432

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Lucia Berlin Series: Picador Collection

About the Author

Lucia Berlin (1936-2004) worked brilliantly but sporadically throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Her stories are culled from her early childhood in various Western mining towns; her glamorous teenage years in Santiago, Chile; three failed marriages; a lifelong problem with alcoholism; her years spent in Berkeley, New Mexico, and Mexico City; and the various jobs she later held to support her writing and her four sons, including as a high-school teacher, a switchboard operator, a physician's assistant, and a cleaning woman.

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  • A Manual for Cleaning Women
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