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Lisa Gornick: Lisa Gornick

Novelist and short story writer.
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Lisa Gornick

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July 2015

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Lisa Gornick
Photo ©  Sigrid Estrada.

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Biography

Lisa Gornick is the author of the just released “novel in fragments”, Louisa Meets Bear (Sarah Crichton Books/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which received starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Booklist, as well as two earlier novels: Tinderbox (Sarah Crichton Books/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and A Private Sorcery (Algonquin). Her stories and essays have appeared widely, including in AGNI, The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, and Slate, and have received many awards, including a distinguished story citation in the Best American Short Stories anthology. She holds a B.A. from Princeton and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Yale, and is a graduate of the writing program at NYU and the psychoanalytic training program at Columbia. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Reviews

On Louisa Meets Bear:

"Those who enjoy literary novels of psychological portent will relish this title."
—Library Journal

"Gornick's brilliantly constructed third novel (after Tinderbox) offers a seamless series of events, spanning from 1961 to 2009, that explore the full spectrum of life in all its bizarre coincidences, tragedies, and passions… Gornick captures all the heartbreak and joy of what it is to be human."
—Publishers Weekly, ***Starred Review***

"Coming full circle in a way that is both oddly surprising and yet feels organically right, Gornick's (Tinderbox, 2013) exploration of loneliness and loss, private connections and personal upheavals resonates with comforting familiarity and profound brilliance. Utterly human and keenly humane, her heroes and heroines are our friends and enemies, our very selves for better and worse."
—Booklist, ***Starred Review***

On Tinderbox:

"...Turning the pages is a pleasure…There is betrayal, sadness, and tragedy… but apart from all this, it's the realistic portrayal of relationships and personalities that carries the book."
—Publishers Weekly

"This vivid portrait of a family unravelling is perfect for book clubs."
—Sue Corbett, People Magazine, ***Four Stars***
"Lisa Gornick’s second novel, Tinderbox, will certainly be compared to Jonathan Franzen’s acclaimed The Corrections. And it should be, since Gornick creates a world of characters every bit as complex and flawed—and as real—as Franzen’s subjects."
—Juli Berwald, Jewish Book Council

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