The UnAmericans

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ENGLISH PEN DEBUT FICTION PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD `The UnAmericans' is a debut story collection of great poise A former dissident from Communist-era Prague fears his daughter's new play will cast him in an unflattering light. A divorced dry cleaner tries to move on, bemused by his daughter's reawakened faith. A Hollywood actor is imprisoned by the House Un-American Activities Committee and has a fraught reunion with his son. A young Israeli journalist, left unemployed after America's most recent economic crash, begins dating a middle-aged widower. And in the book's final story, a tour de force spanning three continents and three generations of women, a young American and her Israeli husband are forced to reconsider their marriage after the death of her art-collecting grandmother. This collection is a stunning exploration of characters shaped by the forces of history. Each finely turned story presents a different, morally suspenseful problem. Arranging and resolving these problems, Molly Antopol writes with an orchestral richness, in fiction that is intricately but delicately composed. But `The UnAmericans' is remarkable as much for its heart as its sophistication: each voice is humane, full of warmth and wit; each page brims with a love of life. The result is a debut collection with the power not only to absorb and thrill, but to move.