by Don DeLillo
First published 2011
Sisters Edgar and Grace work the brutal streets of the South Bronx, ministering to a community plagued by violence and despair. When word spreads of a miraculous apparition, the ghost of a murdered child named Esmeralda appearing on a tenement wall, the nuns must investigate what the neighborhood believes is a divine visitation. Their story anchors this collection of nine tales that stretch across three decades, from the jazz-soaked rhythms of the late 1970s to the stripped-down prose of recent years. A couple finds themselves trapped on a Caribbean island when flights disappear and the economy collapses. Two astronauts orbit Earth during World War III, monitoring radio transmissions from half a century past while reporting to Colorado Command. Each story captures Americans caught between the familiar and the alien, whether they're athletes, terrorists, or travelers. DeLillo places ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, revealing how they define themselves when the world shifts beneath them.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-circumstances
Setting: Caribbean, Colorado, South Bronx
Period: 1970s, Recent Years, World War III
224 pages · Hardcover · Scribner
Content warnings: violence