Lynne Sharon Schwartz: 17 books

With a reader’s perspective and a master writer’s skill, critically acclaimed novelist Lynne Sharon Schwartz takes on the world at large Communication, while essential, is almost impossible to maintain perfectly—a truism Lynne Sharon Schwartz demonstrates in this stunning essay collection....

Award-winning novelist, poet and essayist, Lynne Sharon Schwartz returns with what is perhaps her most personal book yet. These memoirs, gathered under the title of “Intimacies,” are exactly that. Intimate recollections of her life, beginning with her serious heart-valve surgery and ranging back...

A rich and diverse collection of stories detailing life in all its daily battles and yearnings Lynne Sharon Schwartz is a master of tone, deft at creating realistic settings and characters. In Acquainted with the Night, she unleashes sixteen wickedly smart, wholly believable short stories....

Everyone has a face that they show to the outside world—but our thoughts, fears, and perversions lie just beneath “Referred pain” describes the sensation of pain, not at the actual point of injury, but somewhere else in the body. This disorientation of the senses is felt, in one way or...

Two-Part Inventions begins when Suzanne, a concert pianist, dies suddenly of a stroke in the New York City apartment she shares with her producer husband Philip. Rather than mourn in peace, Philip becomes deeply paranoid: their life is based on a fraud and the acclaimed music the couple created is...

The arithmetic of marriage is never easy to understand—as time passes, the variables constantly change Caroline is set adrift in 1950s Rome when she meets Ivan. Though things start slowly, Ivan wins her over after a strong pursuit, and the two marry, agreeing never to inflict any “irreparable...

A dynamic collection of stories that portrays different generations and explores various genres with compassion and dry wit In The Melting Pot, nothing is ever what it seems. In these short stories from critically acclaimed author Lynne Sharon Schwartz, characters grapple with the desires and...

A Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 1996 'Without books how could I have become myself?' In this wonderfully written meditation, Lynne Sharon Schwartz offers deeply felt insight into why we read and how what we read shapes our lives. An enchanting celebration of the printed word.

An injury at birth left Audrey with a wandering eye. Though flawed, the bad eye functions well enough to permit her an idiosyncratic view of the world, one she welcomes in the stifling postwar Brooklyn of the 1950s. During a journey to Manhattan to see a doctor about her sight, she begins to explore...

“A more-than-welcome return to a classic idea of the novel . . . A wonder to read” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). The field is all around us. It’s our needs and our wants. This is what George tells Lydia. A disturbance, however, is something that keeps us from grasping and attaining...

“One marvels at the force of seeing in Schwartz’s No Way Out But Through and cannot help but feel a particular gratitude for her abundant humor. Go all in with these poems; you'll reap unknown rewards. She possesses a quick-witted imagination that sanctifies memories and makes room for the wondrous nature of our cosmopolitan lights.” —Major Jackson

The emotionally realistic and elegant portrait of mourning in the days and months following 9/11 As Renata, a linguist for the New York City Public Library, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge on her way to work one morning, she looks up to see a flash of orange and blue. Two planes have hit the World...

The Fatigue Artist is a refreshingly candid story about life, love, and survival in the contemporary world. A writer living in New York City, Laura is overwhelmed by a mysterious lethargy and retreats to her bed where she reflects on the loves and losses of her recent past and seeks the cure to her...

Retirement doesn’t spell the end after all, in this rousing journey through loss and rebirth Max has lived a long and fulfilling life. He and his wife were star trapeze artists and acrobats in the Brandon Brothers circus. But with her passing, he’s left alone in New York, and suffers a...