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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

By: George Saunders
Narrated by: BD Wong, George Saunders, Glenn Close, Keith David, Nick Offerman, Phylicia Rashad, Rainn Wilson, Renée Elise Goldsberry
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Bloomsbury presents A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, read by George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, Glenn Close, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, BD Wong and Renée Elise Goldsberry.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

PICKED BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, IRISH TIMES, SPECTATOR, TLS, NEW STATESMAN AND EVENING STANDARD AS A BOOK OF 2021

'A masterclass from a warm and engagingly enthusiastic companion' Guardian Summer Reading Picks 2021

‘This book is a delight, and it’s about delight too. How necessary, at our particular moment’ Tessa Hadley
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From the New York Times-bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves – and our world today.

For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.

In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.©2021 George Saunders (P)2021 Penguin Random House LLC Essays Literary History & Criticism Russian & Soviet Words, Language & Grammar World Literature Writing & Publishing Nonfiction Funny Inspiring Thought-Provoking Fiction Russia
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Critic reviews

A wonderful book … This book is a delight … I love the warmth with which he writes about this teaching, and agree wholeheartedly … All this makes Saunders’s book very different from just another “how to” creative writing manual, or just another critical essay … One of the pleasures of this book is feeling his own thinking move backwards and forwards, between the writer dissecting practice and the reader entering in through the spell of the words, to dwell inside the story (Tessa Hadley)
Saunders is such a wise and amiable teacher ... A page-turner (Robert Webb)
Luminously perceptive
A masterclass in how to be human ... unfailingly, often thrillingly illuminating … Published any time, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain would be a joyous reminder that fiction is “the most effective mode of mind-to-mind communication ever devised”. Published now, it feels like vital and civilising corrective to the pretend certainties of public life – and, increasingly, of our personal lives too
One of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of a writer that I’ve ever read
The Russian greats truly shine in this account; but Saunders is the real star. His way of expressing himself is simultaneously supremely intellectual and jovially down-to-earth. It’s rare to read a book and love it so much that you think it’s simply perfect. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is that book (Viv Groskop)
Joins a long tradition of using Russian literature as a guide to life … Practical and playful … it also probes exactly how narrative techniques make us more alert, attentive and sympathetic in reading books and the world around us
By the end Saunders is wondering if there is indeed any point in writing at all. I won’t spoil his conclusion.
Suffice to say, the hairs on the back of my neck were alert
Suffused with wry humour … Not an academic interpretation, but a reader’s companion. I was pleasurably absorbed from start to finish
The Booker-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo considers the art of fiction through seven classic Russian short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Gogol
The combination of Saunders’s piercing mind and the Russian subjects being Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Gogol promises to be a highbrow treat for fans of literature, and a book offering deep insights into storytelling and how narrative functions
A literary masterclass
But the real star of A Swim isn't Chekhov or Turgenev or Tolstoy or Gogol - it's Saunders himself ... This book will quite simply make you a better, more observant and more understanding reader
Part intro to Russian literature, part musings on craft, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is all pleasure
A worship song to writers and readers
All stars
Most relevant
I found this accessible and unpretentious. Great narration. I’d recommend it to other writers or to anyone who wants a bit of insight into the Russian greats.

Inspirational

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Fascinating in-depth analysis and exploration of these Russian short stories by a talented writer and teacher, who brings out the humanity. He reads with warmth and compassion. I never tire of this audiobook. Thankyou.

Fascinating in depth analysis.

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I loved this book. The concept is simple: read a 19th century Russian short story, then discuss it, like sitting in George Saunders' writing class. I'm not a fiction writer, and I've not read these stories before, but I found it endlessly fascinating. There's so much depth in there to dig, and Saunders is the perfect patient digger. I almost enjoyed the commentary more. He's funny and thoughtful and embraces feelings and complexity, reversing his position constantly. Production was perfect, stories are brilliantly read. What other genres can he do? I need more.

Brilliant

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Really extraordinary. Illuminating, engrossing, life affirming.
Can’t recommend more although it appears I have to write five more words

Totally engrossing

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An inspiring read for anyone who loves writing and reading and wishes to know what happens in the writer's head as she writes.

Inspiring read.

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