Reality and Other Stories

John Lanchester

Hardcover

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Reader Score

66%

66% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 11 reviews on

In 2017, inspired in part by Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, the acclaimed English novelist John Lanchester published a ghost story in The New Yorker. "Signal," an eerie story of contemporary life and the perils of technology, was a sensation among readers--and since then Lanchester has written several more.

Reality and Other Stories gathers the best of these, taking readers to an uncanny world familiar to fans of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Household gizmos with a mind of their own. Mysterious cell-phone calls from unknown numbers. Reality TV shows and the creeping suspicion that none of this is real...

Reality and Other Stories is a book of disquiet that captures the severe disconnection and distraction of our time.

Book Details

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: Mar 9th, 2021
Pages: 192
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.60in - 0.90in - 0.70lb
EAN: 9780393540918
Categories: • Short Stories (single author)• Ghost• Literary

About the Author

Lanchester, John: - John Lanchester is the author of five novels, including the best-selling The Debt to Pleasure and Capital. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and he is a regular contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He lives in London.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

This intriguing debut collection grapples with technology and its illusion of convenience, choice and escape. Lanchester, a British novelist and journalist, has a sharp eye for social class and setting in his ghost stories for the digital age.--Vanessa Hua, New York Times Book Review

Ingenious...[Lanchester's stories] send a shiver down the spine.--Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

A smart book, scary as hell, and also a whole lot of fun...[Reality and Other Stories is] as endlessly entertaining as it is legitimately frightening.--Michael Schaub, NPR.org

John Lanchester's collection of tech-y ghost stories seems especially appealing right now...The eight tales in Lanchester's Reality and Other Stories are meant to entertain, to take you out of yourself for a space--and that they deftly do.--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

Brisk, vinegar-sharp satires that horrify and amuse in equal measure.-- "Guardian"

A mind-bending collection about the multifaceted scariness of the way we live now.-- "Times Literary Supplement (UK)"

Very clever, very modern 'entertainments.'-- "Financial Times (UK)"

Across these immensely enjoyable and varied tales, Lanchester embraces the camp silliness of the gothic sensibility, while also making astute observations about our ever-developing digital reality.-- "Booklist"