Blasphemy

**Alexie once again reasserts himself as one the most compelling contemporary practitioners of the short story. In* Blasphemy* , the author demonstrates his talent on nearly every page. . . . Will appeal to fans of Junot Diaz, George Saunders, and readers new to Alexie will find this enriching collection to be the perfect introduction to a formidable literary voice. . . . [Alexie] illuminates the lives of his characters in unique, surprising, and, ultimately, hopeful ways. *Boston Globe* Told in [Alexie’s] irreverent, unforgettable voice . . . You’ll feel you’ve been transported inside the soul of a deeply wounded people. But they are a people too comfortable in their brown skins to allow those wounds to break them. . . . With irony and sardonic wit, the Native men and women in Alexie’s imagination find a way forward, and they endure. . . . [A] great triumph. *Los Angeles Times* ** Sherman Alexie’s stature as a writer of stories, poetry, and novels has soared over the course of his twenty-book, twenty-year career. His wide-ranging, acclaimed fiction throughout the last two decadesfrom* The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven* to his most recent PEN/Faulkner Awardwinning *War Dances* have established him as a star in contemporary American literature. A bold and irreverent observer of life among Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, the daring, versatile, funny, and outrageous Alexie showcases his many talents in *Blasphemy* , where he unites fifteen beloved classics with sixteen new stories in one sweeping anthology for devoted fans and first-time readers. Included here are some of his most esteemed tales, including What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” in which a homeless Indian man quests to win back a family heirloom; This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” a road-trip morality tale; The Toughest Indian in the World,” about a night shared between a writer and a hitchhiker; and his most recent, War Dances,” about a man grappling with sudden hearing loss in the wake of his father’s death. Alexie’s new stories are fresh and quintessential, about donkey basketball leagues, lethal wind turbines, a twenty-four-hour Asian manicure salon, good and bad marriages, and all species of warriors in America today. An indispensable Alexie collection, *Blasphemy* reminds us, on every thrilling page, why Alexie is one of our greatest contemporary writers and a true master of the short story.