Beautiful Days
by Zach Williams · 2024
Buy on AmazonFrom New Yorker and Paris Review contributor and Wallace Stegner Fellow Zach Williams comes a staggering debut story collection that confronts parenthood, mortality, and life's broken promises. Parents awaken in a home in the woods, again and again, to find themselves aging as their infant remains unchanged. An employee is menaced by a conspiracy-minded security guard and accused of sending a sinister viral email. An aging tour guide leads a troublesome group to the site of a UFO, witnessing the slow social deterioration as the rules of decorum go out the window. In each of Williams' ten stories, time is as fallible as the characters, and reality is witnessed through the gauzy folds of a dream--or a nightmare.…
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"This novel's exploration of American identity and social change fits Barack Obama's consistent interest in narratives that illuminate the complexities of the nation's past and present. Its contemporary themes align with the kinds of thoughtful fiction he often recommends."
Obama's 2024 Summer Reading List · barackobama.medium.com