Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction
Coming out in OCTOBER 2016
To read one of the stories from THE JUNGLE AROUND US click here
“You’ll see how beautiful it is in the morning—jungle all around us,” says one of the characters in Anne Raeff’s story collection, referring to the way that the jungle that threatens can also provide solace. The jungle in these stories is both metaphorical and real, taking the reader from war-torn Europe to Bolivia and from suburban New Jersey to Vietnam. Raeff examines how war and violence, like the jungle, seep into our lives, even when we are no longer in danger and long after the war is over.
Advanced praise for THE JUNGLE AROUND US:
“This masterful collection records the long psychic toll of the twentieth century’s traumas, offering portraits of people in various kinds of exile: displaced from their countries, or uneasy in their hometowns, or somehow alien in their own bodies and minds. Anne Raeff’s exquisite stories are remarkable for their combination of intimacy and reverence for the mysteries and private griefs her characters fold their lives around. Seldom have I read work so confident in the power of what’s left unspoken and in the deep eloquence of gesture. The Jungle Around Us is a haunting and breathtakingly beautiful book.” – Garth Greenwell, author of WHAT BELONGS TO YOU
"The stories in The Jungle Around Us do not try to make sense of the world–they are the world. . . The jungle Anne Raeff proposes us to enter is, in reality, not around us in the intricate destinations of displacement where this book takes place–from Bolivia to Austria, from Leningrad to Albuquerque, from New York to Mexico–but within ourselves. . . Raeff's characters are too complex, too fully fleshed out, too human to know what step to take next, and this is, perhaps, the biggest feat of many she has achieved with this ravishing collection. Her talent is rare and transfixing, and this book marks the arrival of a marvelous new voice."—Antonio Ruiz-Camacho, author of BAREFOOT DOGS
This collection is destined to become a classic. . . Her characters, heartbreakingly real, navigate the aftermath of the terrible wrench of World War II, displacements of many sorts, and set out on quests for both place and a peace that arises all too rarely - displaying their humanity throughout. Elegant, compassionate, and blessedly wise, these stories are not only unforgettable, they are important for capturing lives we do not yet know.—Robin Black, author of LIFE DRAWING