Description:

George Saunders has earned enthusiastic acclaim and a devoted cult-following with his first two story collections and the recent novella *The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil*. With his new book, *In Persuasion Nation*, Saunders ups the ante in every way, and is poised to break out to a wide new audience. The stories *In Persuasion Nation* are easily his best work yet. "The Red Bow,"about a town consumed by pet-killing hysteria, won a 2004 National Magazine Award and "Bohemians," the story of two supposed Eastern European widows trying to fit in in suburban USA, is included in *The Best American Short Stories 2005*. His new book includes both unpublished work, and stories that first appeared in *The New Yorker*, *Harper's*, and *Esquire*. The stories in this volume work together as a whole whose impact far exceeds the simple sum of its parts. Fans of Saunders know and love him for his sharp and hilarious satirical eye. But *In Persuasion Nation* also includes more personal and poignant pieces that reveal a new kind of emotional conviction in Saunders's writing. Saunders's work in the last six years has come to be recognized as one of the strongest-and most consoling-cries in the wilderness of the millennium's political and cultural malaise. *In Persuasion Nation*'s sophistication and populism should establish Saunders once and for all as this generation's literary voice of wisdom and humor in a time when we need it most.