About the author:
\nJim Shepard is the author of seven previous novels\, most recent
ly \;The Book of Aron \;(winner of the 2016 PEN New Engla
nd Award\, the Sophie Brody medal for achievement in Jewish literature\, t
he Ribalow Prize for Jewish literature\, the Clark Fiction Prize\, and a f
inalist for the National Jewish Book Award) and five story collections\, i
ncluding \;Like You&rsquo\;d Understand\, Anyway\,&n
bsp\;which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won The Story Pr
ize. His short fiction has appeared in\, among other magazines\, \;The New Yorker\, Harper&rsquo\;s Magazine\, McSweeney&r
squo\;s\, The Paris Review\, The Atlantic\, Esq
uire\, Tin House\, Granta\, Zoetrope\, Electric Literature\, \;and \;Vice\, \;and has
often been selected for \;The Best American Short Stories&nbs
p\;and \;The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Williams
town\, Massachusetts\, with his wife\, three children\, and three beagles\
, and he teaches at Williams College.
\;
With irony\, compa
ssion\, and withering humor\, the stories in The Queen of Bad
Influences evoke the terrible ease with which cataclysm\, hu
man-engineered or otherwise\, can sweep away all we find most precious\, a
nd expose those limitations we&rsquo\;ve refused to address. At the same t
ime\, Shepard celebrates what is best in us: the love and friendships we s
ustain\, and the passions and grace we grant one another.
In Richa rd Ford&rsquo\;s view\, Jim Shepard&rsquo\;s &ldquo\;talent is so various and canny he can write about seemingly anything and make it thrilling to u s\,&rdquo\; and in these stories spanning six centuries we find viscerally evoked worlds as wildly diverse as a mercenary&rsquo\;s corner of 16th ce ntury Madrid\, a young apprentice&rsquo\;s pre-Revolutionary Boston\, and Edward Hyde&rsquo\;s London. \; With civil engineers and destitute vet erans we encounter the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida\, a nd we read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boon\, North Carolina (&ldquo\ ;Three privates are currently sleeping soundly on our porch in their muddy blankets&rdquo\;) and her great love\, William\, on the march in Tennesse e (&ldquo\;I can&rsquo\;t write much for it seems we are looking for a fig ht every minute&rdquo\;)\, while the title story introduces us to the stub born Constance\, who had &ldquo\;no gift for flirtation&rdquo\; with men\, preferring Minna\, her best friend and &ldquo\;queen of bad influences\,& rdquo\; as their vexed devotion unfolds in part on the liner \;Lus itania.
\nBooks will be available for purchase cour
tesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.
\;