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There Will Be No More Good Nights Without Good Nights
The characters in this collection are searching for something more: in the markings on tortoise shells, on other planets, with new lovers and altered identities. They know there are whole worlds out there that have never been seen, some as distant as the Amazon rain forest, others as close as a neighbor’s house, the curtains left open. Laura van den Berg helps us discover these worlds, blending the mundane and routine with the strange and unexpected. The search won’t always end with the stories—these restless narrators will always be left with mysteries unsolved, questions unanswered and hidden aches not quite healed—but what they see along the way will be nothing short of marvelous.
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48 pages, Paperback
First published September 10, 2012
About the author
Laura van den Berg
27 books752 followersLaura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of five works of fiction, including The Third Hotel, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bard Fiction Prize, a PEN/O. Henry Award, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and is a two-time finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Laura is currently a Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard. Her next novel, State of Paradise, is forthcoming from FSG in July 2024. She lives in the Hudson Valley.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 2, 2023
“lake” is one of those stories that reminds me of why i love short stories
October 18, 2012
Finished Laura van den Berg's chapbook, THERE WILL BE NO MORE GOOD NIGHTS WITHOUT GOOD NIGHTS, from Origami Zoo Press and highly recommend the read. The stories are so skillful and moving and imaginative. Really beautiful work. Readers, treat yourself. Teachers of short-short fiction, this tiny, powerful book is a must for your students. Skeptics of short-short stories, go read and get thee converted.
February 7, 2024
The stories in this slim volume are a mixed bag. Most of the shorts center on women who have gotten divorce, are in the process of divorcing, or are on the precipice of their relationship collapsing in some way. We are dealing with flash fiction, mostly, with most of the stories in this collection clocking in at around three pages, which means that things end before they really even get started. There just isn't much of an opportunity to achieve any sense of place or time before the reader must move on to the next tale.
I will say that van den Berg is a gifted writer who is especially good at crafting strong final sentences. I even underlined some because I really liked them. But with so few stories in such a small volume I would expect them to really hit more strongly and resonate more. I did not feel a super strong connection to what I read, though, and ultimately don't think there was anything in this book that was particularly memorable or powerful.
Best stories: Lake, Something Thrilling and Heroic and Strange, The Golden Dragon Express.
I will say that van den Berg is a gifted writer who is especially good at crafting strong final sentences. I even underlined some because I really liked them. But with so few stories in such a small volume I would expect them to really hit more strongly and resonate more. I did not feel a super strong connection to what I read, though, and ultimately don't think there was anything in this book that was particularly memorable or powerful.
Best stories: Lake, Something Thrilling and Heroic and Strange, The Golden Dragon Express.
December 15, 2018
Chapbook of flash fiction by one of the best short-story writers working right now. Highlights: A woman comes to loathe her husband’s pets in the wake of her failed marriage in “Parakeets.” A woman’s daughter obsesses over spaceflight in “To the Good People of Mars.” A widow spies on her photographer neighbor and his subject wife in “Photography.” A marriage and family hit the rocks on game night in “The Golden Dragon Express."
July 28, 2018
I love love love her writing. I like magical realism less, so I was happy with the realism of the collection (a little weird but still realistic). For that reason, I didn’t love the last story, which is why this gets 4 stars instead of 5.
October 1, 2018
oh my god this book found me it was buried deep in a pile and was only $1 and made my head spin. every story was incredible. magic for sure!
March 15, 2020
I liked ‘Parakeets’ the best
But also like ‘To The Good People of Mars’, ‘Lake’
But also like ‘To The Good People of Mars’, ‘Lake’
April 4, 2020
A collection of wonderful short short stories by a gifted writer whose prose never ceases to intrigue and compel one to read more of her work.
April 11, 2022
Each story in this collection was like an escape, going to different places even if it felt like the characters were my neighbors. Definitely one to re-read.
February 2, 2019
Short little collection of stories that I read on New Year’s Day. i really loved another book of short I stories read by Lauren van den Berg last year so I was excited to read these. It’s a nice quick little read, but almost too short to have an opinion on. I would necessarily encourage or discourage anyone from reading it.
February 2, 2015
This is the second book that I read of Laura van den Berg and I most say... Is too short. I like it, I like the fact that she centers her books on broken women, from what I know The Isle of Youth: Stories will also be like this. I already read What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and this one. Both books produce the same effect in me. Part of myself was disappointed at the beginning, even wondering why I read one more book of her, but I continue, I continue because this time I was prepare to what I call now the "van den Berg effect". At the beginning I am not sure I will like the book, I read the stories and then i go back and start to reach the stories from another perspective. But this time they did not had that much magic, maybe 3 pages is not enough for me to feel attach to all these woman. I like the book, but I think that the stories of her first book have more magic. My favorites here are "The Golden Dragon Express" and "Cannibals". Again, it seems for me that she left the best for the last. One of the things that i like from her is that she manage to put all these women in completely different context and story lines and by the end they are all broken is like trying to show us, that no matter the circumstances, most of us we will ended up there, broken.
February 27, 2013
This slender and wonderful short story collection is a true work of art. Laura van den Berg has honed the already winning style evident in her outstanding debut collection "What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us." The stories she offers here are even closer to the bone. They playfully and comically penetrate the mysteries of identity, loneliness, loss, and missed and crossed connections; they are as good as the stories of Karen Russell and Marie-Helene Bertino, and just as hilarious. I love these stories. I can't say enough about them.
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June 6, 2016A very short book (37 pages) filled with very short stories. This is Laura van den Berg's book that no one talks about, a collection of weird, sometimes surreal flash fictions. These stories are snappy and full of energy, and the whole book can be read in a sitting. These earlier stories contrast with the longer stories in "The Isle of Youth," but that does not in any way diminish their quality. Instead, it demonstrates the range of styles and voices this writer is capable of. I look forward to reading more of her work.
March 31, 2013
It's an ever-so-short book, but the stories kick (or maybe bite) if you let them. Space 'em out, read them all at once, no matter. What I said before: some of my favorite Carver stories are secretly poems, and so are these.
September 10, 2012
All of these short-shorts are gems. Each and every one. LvdB is the bee's knees.
September 23, 2012
Surprising turns in the narrative captivated me. The stories are sad, unresolved, and beautiful.
July 28, 2013
This is a dazzling collection of broken relationships & the spaces that inhabit us.
"To the Good People of Mars" is one of the best pieces of short fiction I have ever seen.
"To the Good People of Mars" is one of the best pieces of short fiction I have ever seen.
January 30, 2016
Laura van den Berg is a master at selecting the singular detail that will encapsulate an entire mood or landscape. Not a word wasted.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews