{"product_id":"the-incurables-paperback-2","title":"The Incurables - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMark Brazaitis\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his latest collection of literary fiction, Mark Brazaitis evokes with sympathy, insight, and humor the lives of characters in a small Ohio town. The ten short stories of \u003ci\u003eThe Incurables\u003c\/i\u003e limn the mental landscape of people facing conditions they believe are insolvable, from the oppressive horrors of mental illness to the beguiling and baffling complexities of romantic and familial love. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the book's opening story, \"The Bridge,\" a new sheriff must confront a suicide epidemic as well as his own deteriorating mental health. In \"Classmates,\" a man sets off to visit the wife of a classmate who has killed himself. Is he hoping to write a story about his classmate or to observe the aftermath of what his own suicide attempt, if successful, would have been like? In the title story, a down-on-his-luck porn actor returns to his hometown and winds up in the mental health ward of the local hospital, where he meets a captivating woman. Other stories in the collection include \"A Map of the Forbidden,\" about a straight-laced man who is tempted to cheat on his wife after his adulterous father dies, and \"The Boy behind the Tree,\" about a problematic father-son relationship made more so by the arrival on the scene of a young man the son's age. In \"I Return,\" a father narrates a story from the afterlife, discovering as he does so that he is not as indispensable to his family as he had believed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMark Brazaitis is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award \u003ci\u003eAn American Affair: Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the George Garrett Fiction Prize from Texas Review Press; a novel, \u003ci\u003eSteal My Heart;\u003c\/i\u003e and a collection of poetry, \u003ci\u003eThe Other Language. \u003c\/i\u003eBrazaitis's short stories have been cited in the Pushcart Prize annual and \u003ci\u003eBest American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e volumes. He is the director of the Creative Writing Program at West Virginia University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 244\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 13, 2012\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42134929178759,"sku":"9780268022310","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/3112e338b35c62f2d59eb0cd5f9a8063.webp?v=1732645701","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-incurables-paperback-2","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}