Most Popular Books by Lore Segal

National Jewish Book Award Finalist The New Yorker''s Best Book of the Year! "For almost six decades Segal has quietly produced some of the best fiction and essays in American literature..."—The New York Times "Segal writes with welcome clarity about life’s final years, and if her characters are not always as wise as they think they are, Segal eyes them all with the unsentimental wisdom of a life spent writing wondrous stories and essays, a career spent telling the truth." - Slate Beloved New Yorker writer Lore Segal, at 95-years-old, is a national treasure. Working at the height of her powers, in this story collection she turns her gimlet eye and compassionate humor on aging and life in the slow lane. From the master of the short short comes a collection of 16 new stories featuring old friends who have loved and lunched together for over 40 years. These erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians offer startling insights into friendship, family and aging. Can the group organize a visit to one of their number in her new, and detested, assisted living situation? Is this a fabulous party with old friends, or a funeral reception? And does who was sleeping with whom, way back when, still matter? In story after story, Segal''s voice is always hilarious and urbane, heartbreaking and profound, keen and utterly unsentimental, as she tackles aging''s affronts.

Hailed by the New York Times as coming “closer than anyone to writing The Great American Novel,” Lore Segal stuns with this passionate love story of a refugee from Hitler’s Europe and a witty, hard-drinking black intellectual For Ilka Weissnix, everything is new. Having recently arrived in the United States, she is determined to escape the immigrant communities of New York and boards a train headed west to discover “the real America.” She finds Carter Bayoux “sitting on a stool in a bar in the desert, across from the railroad.” Older, portly, experienced, and black, Carter is magnetic. To Ilka, he exemplifies the values and cultures of a changing America. In order to understand her new country and her new love, Ilka throws herself into Carter’s dizzying world, nurses him through his bouts of depression and his alcoholism, and becomes fascinated by stories of his amorous past. But Carter’s ghosts are ever present, and soon Ilka finds herself torn between saving him and saving her own future. With a foreword by Stanley Crouch, Her First American is the poignant story of an immigrant experience in a country of endless possibilities and of a rich and breathtaking love that is doomed from the start.

With a foreword by Cynthia Ozick, this semiautobiographical novel of a Jewish girl forced away from home in the face of Nazi persecution is an extraordinary tale of fortitude and survival On a December night in 1938, a ten-year-old girl named Lore is put on the Kindertransport, a train carrying hundreds of Jewish children out of Austria to safety from Hitler’s increasingly alarming oppression. Temporarily housed at the Dover Court Camp on England’s east coast, Lore will find herself living in other people’s houses for the next seven years: the Orthodox Levines, the Hoopers, the working-class Grimsleys, and the wealthy Miss Douglas and Mrs. Dillon. Charged with the task of asking “the English people” to get her parents out of Austria, Lore discovers in herself an impassioned writer. In letters to potential sponsors, she details the horrors happening back at home; in those to her parents, she notes the mannerisms and reactions of the new families around her as she valiantly tries to master their language. And the closer the world comes to a new war, the more resolute Lore becomes to survive. As powerful now as when it was first released fifty years ago, Other People’s Houses is a poignant tale about the creation of a new life in the face of hopelessness and fear—a hallmark of the postwar immigration experience.

The thirteen interrelated stories of Shakespeare''s Kitchen concern the universal longing for friendship, how we achieve new intimacies for ourselves, and how slowly, inexplicably, we lose them. Featuring six never-before-published pieces, Lore Segal''s stunning new book evolved from seven short stories that originally appeared in the New Yorker (including the O. Henry Prize–;winning “The Reverse Bug”). Ilka Weisz has accepted a teaching position at the Concordance Institute, a think tank in Connecticut, reluctantly leaving her New York circle of friends. After the comedy of her struggle to meet new people, Ilka comes to embrace, and be embraced by, a new set of acquaintances, including the institute''s director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife, Eliza. Through a series of memorable dinner parties, picnics, and Sunday brunches, Segal evokes the subtle drama and humor of the outsider''s loneliness, the comfort and charm of familiar companionship, the bliss of being in love, and the strangeness of our behavior in the face of other people''s deaths. A magnificent and deeply moving work, Shakespeare''s Kitchen marks the long-awaited return of a writer at the height of her powers.

Three hilarious, quirky tales about a young city girl''s adventures big and small. Mitzi lives with her mother and father and her baby brother in the big city where every day is an adventure. Or at least Mitzi makes it one, though sometimes the adventure is more than a little surprising. One day it’s time to pay an impromptu visit to her grandparents. And what will happen when the president comes to town? Who knows what Mitzi will get up to next? In Tell Me a Mitzi Lore Segal’s droll dialogue and off-kilter storytelling is beautifully matched by Harriet Pincus’s gritty and colorful illustrations. These are stories that capture childhood in all its puzzlement, resourcefulness, and unsentimental wonder.

A New York Times Notable Book The renowned New Yorker writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist delivers a hilarious, poignant, and profoundly moving tale of living, loving, and aging in America today At Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, doctors have noticed a marked uptick in Alzheimer’s patients. People who seemed perfectly lucid just a day earlier suddenly show signs of advanced dementia. Is it just normal aging, or an epidemic? Is it a coincidence, or a secret terrorist plot? In the looking-glass world of Half the Kingdom—where terrorist paranoia and end-of-the-world hysteria mask deeper fears of mortality; where parents’ and their grown children''s feelings vacillate between frustration and tenderness; and where the broken medical system leads one character to quip, “Kafka wrote slice-of-life fiction”—all is familiar and yet slightly askew. Lore Segal masterfully interweaves her characters’ lives—lives that, for good or for ill, all converge in Cedar''s ER—into a funny, tragic, and tender portrait of how we live today. “Lore Segal may have come closer than anyone to writing The Great American Novel.” —The New York Times “I always feel in her work such a sense of toughness and humor . . . Her writing is sad and funny, and that makes it more of both.” —Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad

Three episodes with a little girl and her family: "Trudy and the Copycats", "Trudy and the Dump Truck", and "Trudy and Superman".

Intelligence turns me on. Lore Segal''s tour de force look at the New York literary scene was a hit when it was first released in the 1970s, winning the praise of the literary elite. John Garnder called it “magical.” William Gass said it was “witty, elegant, beautiful.” Stanley Elkin called it “a shamelessly wonderful novel, so flawless one feels civilized reading it.” It''s been a cult classic ever since, and appears here in its full, original text, as fresh as ever: the story of the whimsical New York poet Lucinella and her adventures among the literati. It starts at Yaddo writers colony, where life is idyllic, meals are served to you in your rooms, and cocktails are ready at day''s end … and still the writers complain and compete. Then it moves back to New York City, where the pampered once again face reality, and wonder: Will a different husband … or the right publisher … or the perfect filing system … put life in order? Lucinella and her circle feel lacking and keep looking, busily going to parties and watching one another ''s lives closely for signs of happiness, love and despair. Segal depicts it all with a perfect blend of love and malice. And at the center is Lucinella herself, so full of humanity and frailty that these divertissements do her to death. “Here,” as Cynthia Ozick says, “is the enchanted microcosm, the laughter of mortality.” The Contemporary Art of the Novella series is designed to highlight work by major authors from around the world. In most instances, as with Imre Kertész, it showcases work never before published; in others, books are reprised that should never have gone out of print. It is intended that the series feature many well-known authors and some exciting new discoveries. And as with the original series, The Art of the Novella, each book is a beautifully packaged and inexpensive volume meant to celebrate the form and its practitioners.

Ilka Weisz is in need not just of friends but ''elective cousins''. She has left her home in New York to accept a junior teaching post at the prestigious Concordance Institute, a liberal college in bucolic Connecticut. But how can she, a Jewish refugee from Vienna, find a new set to belong to - a surrogate family? Might the Shakespeares - the institute''s director and his wry, acerbic wife - hold the key? In these interlinked New Yorker stories, Lore Segal evokes the comic melancholy of the outsider and the ineffectual ambitions of a progressive, predominantly WASP-ish institution. Tragedy and loss haunt characters as they plan an academic symposium on genocide, while their privileged lives contrast starkly with those on a derelict housing project next door. Includes the acclaimed New Yorker podcast story, "The Reverse Bug".

"For almost six decades Segal has quietly produced some of the best fiction and essays in American literature, as this generous sampler attests."—The New York Times "Segal is a monumental writer, one of the finest of her generation; this lovely collection is a fine introduction to her work."—Kirkus Reviews "There are many standouts in the collection, but its single greatest strength is the consistency of Segal’s voice, apparent from the very first paragraph of the opening piece..."—The Paris Review A DEFINITIVE COLLECTION FROM ONE OF AMERICA''S FINEST WRITERS—INCLUDING NEW AND NEVER-BEFORE-COLLECTED WORK From the award-winning New Yorker writer comes this essential volume spanning almost six decades. Admired for “a voice unlike any other” (Cynthia Ozick) and a style both “wry and poignant” (The New Yorker), Lore Segal is a master literary stylist. This volume collects some of her finest work—including new and uncollected writing—and selections from her novels, stories, and essays. From her very first story—which appeared in The New Yorker in 1961—to today, Segal’s voice has been unique in contemporary American literature: Hilarious and urbane, heartbreaking and profound, keen and utterly unsentimental. Segal has often used her own biography as both subject and inspiration: At age ten she was sent on the Kindertransport from Vienna to England to escape the Nazi invasion of Austria; grew up among English foster families; and eventually made her way to the United States. This experience was the impetus for her first novel, Other People’s Houses, and one that she has revisited throughout her career. From that beginning, Segal’s writing has ranged widely across form as well as subject matter. Her flawless prose and light touch belie the rigor and intelligence she brings to her art—qualities that were not missed by the New York Times reviewer who pointedly observed, “though it was not written by a man . . . Segal may have come closer than anyone to writing The Great American Novel.” With this volume comes a long-awaited career retrospective of an important American Writer.

When Juliet falls down and continues to cry, her mother decides to take her home and a parade of noises begins.

Que todas las personas mayores que pisan cierto hospital "pierdan la chaveta" –y he allí el diagnóstico más preciso con el que han conseguido dar los médicos–, podría ser el resultado de una conspiración, un plan terrorista para mantener a los ancianos occidentales con vida hasta el final de los tiempos, pero sin que puedan valerse. Mal de la chaveta. Al menos eso opina uno de los personajes de esta sátira, el experto en textos apocalípticos y teorías de conspiración. Y ya se sabe que un paranoico es el que acaba de darse cuenta de lo que en teorías de conspiración está pasando.

Sie heißt Ilka Weissnix, konnte vor den Nazis mit Müh und Not aus Wien entkommen und landet schließlich in New York. Er heißt Carter Bayoux, trinkt nicht zu knapp, ein schwarzer Intellektueller – er wird ihr erster Amerikaner. Dieser Roman erzählt die Liebesgeschichte der beiden: er nicht ganz frei von Antisemitismus; sie nicht ganz frei von Rassismus. Eine der komischsten und traurigsten Liebesgeschichten der jüngeren amerikanischen Literatur. (Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine frühere Ausgabe.)

Publisher Description

Negen maanden na Hitlers inval in Oostenrijk, in december 1938, wordt de tienjarige Lore Segal alleen op de trein gezet naar Groot-Brittannië. Samen met een paar honderd andere Joodse kinderen wordt ze met het zogenoemde Kindertransport naar het eiland gestuurd om toevlucht te vinden bij een pleeggezin. De zeven jaren die volgen woont Lore in ‘huizen van anderen’: bij een rijke orthodox-Joodse familie, bij een trots arbeidersgezin en later bij twee deftige dames op leeftijd. In Huizen van anderen schetst Segal op inzichtelijke en geestige wijze de levens van de mensen die haar een toevlucht boden, én dat van haarzelf: het leven van een ontworteld kind, tussen vreemden maar relatief veilig in een verder zo roerige oorlogstijd.

Zij, Ilka Weissnix: Joods, Oostenrijks, jong, vluchteling uit Hitlers Europa, nieuweling, overlevende. Hij, Carter Bayoux: Zwart, Amerikaans, zeer intelligent, van middelbare leeftijd, levensgenieter, cynisch. Na jaren te hebben rondgezworven zonder thuis of familie is Ilka vastbesloten beide te vinden. Ergens in een stoffige bar midden in de VS ontmoet ze Carter Bayoux, haar eerste Amerikaan, achter zijn zoveelste glaasje. Ze belanden in New York, dé plek voor mensen die wegrennen van hun vernederingen. Voor Ilka is Carter een voorbeeld van de waarden en culturen van het naoorlogse Amerika. Ze stort zich in zijn duizelingwekkende wereld om zowel haar nieuwe liefde als haar nieuwe land te begrijpen. Maar zijn demonen zijn altijd aanwezig en al snel wordt Ilka verscheurd tussen het redden van hem of van haar eigen toekomst. Snel, gevat, en razend origineel; Haar eerste Amerikaan is het verhaal van een imigrant in een land van eindeloze mogelijkheden.

Cinque amiche novantenni pranzano insieme una volta al mese da decenni. È l’appuntamento che nutre la loro amicizia e l’occasione per affrontare, anche in allegria, i misteri e le offese della vecchiaia che avanza: si lamentano dei mariti – anche se sono quasi tutte vedove ormai – e quando una di loro viene portata in una casa di riposo contro la sua volontà, le altre cospirano per farla evadere... Sono solo alcuni dei momenti di un ritratto sapido e originale dell’invecchiamento, scritto – si potrebbe dire – in presa diretta, visto che l’autrice è essa stessa oggi ultranovantenne. Apparse per la prima volta sul «New Yorker», queste storie – legate fra loro dalla presenza degli stessi personaggi – intrecciano un racconto brillante e commovente, in cui il lettore ha l’impressione di sedere al tavolo con cinque donne intelligenti e ricche di humour, che tentano in ogni modo di mantenere la propria libertà e autonomia, di tutelare in fin dei conti la propria dignità. Lore Segal, autrice di origine viennese oggi considerata tra le più grandi scrittrici americane, ci offre intuizioni sorprendenti sull’amicizia e sul significato di una vita molto lunga.