Bark ─ Stories

“Heartbreaking. . . . Mordantly funny. . . . Takes us on a rare flight of self-transcendence. . . . Moments of recognition bring jolts like electric shocks.” —The New York Review of Books

“Wonderful. . . . Masterful. . . . Profound. . . . Not a single false note.” —USA Today

“[Moore] deftly paints with negative space, releasing tremendous poignancy. . . . A vibrant and nimble display of Moore’s signature wit.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Ms Moore’s writing glides. She describes the mundane with precision and grace. . . . Bark simultaneously honours and regrets the messiness of human relationships. Ms Moore is like one of her characters: ‘sternness in one eye and gentleness in the other.’” —The Economist

“One of the finest short story writers in the country.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“[Moore’s] writing contains multitudes, mixed in exacting proportions, which is to say: this potpourri is utterly and totally unique. . . . There really is no one quite like her.” —The New Republic

“Lorrie Moore still dazzles. . . . These powerfully, almost savagely, human stories shine with a spirit of playfulness and the logic of love.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

Lorrie Moore, after many years as a professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is now Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. Moore has received honors for her work, among them the Irish Times International Prize for Literature and a Lannan Foundation fellowship, as well as the PEN/Malamud Award and the Rea Award for her achievement in the short story. Her most recent novel, A Gate at the Stairs, was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction and for the PEN/Faulkner Award.