Ladies' Lunch
a novella & other stories
Published on 9. March 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-1-914502-03-3 (ISBN)
Description
'These ladies are perfect company' The Times
'Lore Segal has the sharp analytic eye of a born writer' The New York Times Book Review
'There is humour even in the most heart-breaking of her stories' Telegraph
Five close friends in their 90s meet - as they have for decades - for their monthly 'ladies lunch', to puzzle, and laugh at, the enigmas and affronts of ageing. When one of their number is placed unhappily in a home the others conspire to spring her.
Lore Segal's witty, yet poignant, short story, Ladies' Lunch, appeared in the New Yorker in 2017, when she herself turned ninety. It was followed by four New Yorker sequels. For this sparkling collection, Segal returns to her group of erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians in Upper Manhattan offering startling insights into friendship and mortality.
In the book's Other Stories, Segal includes tales from her acclaimed and prizewinning oeuvre to illuminate the hinterland of her characters - one of whom, like her, was a Kindertransport refugee.
Beautifully crafted and profound, these stories distil the spirit of one of America's great authors to show us what a long life might bring.
'Lore Segal has the sharp analytic eye of a born writer' The New York Times Book Review
'There is humour even in the most heart-breaking of her stories' Telegraph
Five close friends in their 90s meet - as they have for decades - for their monthly 'ladies lunch', to puzzle, and laugh at, the enigmas and affronts of ageing. When one of their number is placed unhappily in a home the others conspire to spring her.
Lore Segal's witty, yet poignant, short story, Ladies' Lunch, appeared in the New Yorker in 2017, when she herself turned ninety. It was followed by four New Yorker sequels. For this sparkling collection, Segal returns to her group of erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians in Upper Manhattan offering startling insights into friendship and mortality.
In the book's Other Stories, Segal includes tales from her acclaimed and prizewinning oeuvre to illuminate the hinterland of her characters - one of whom, like her, was a Kindertransport refugee.
Beautifully crafted and profound, these stories distil the spirit of one of America's great authors to show us what a long life might bring.
Reviews / Votes
The everyday stuff of ageing, delivered with spark ... The writing is spare and short, telling us only what is needed, like snatches of conversation heard over the clinking of glasses. These ladies are perfect company -- John Self * Times * Segal has the dazzling ability to merge the mundane details of life with the arc of human emotions * The Washington Post * I always feel in her work such a sense of toughness and humor.... Her writing is sad and funny, and that makes it more of both -- Jennifer Egan If America had anything resembling a wise elder, or cared to, it would be Lore Segal -- Shalom Auslander There is humour even in the most heart-breaking of her stories -- Nicole Lampert * Telegraph * Deft, delicious stories that follow the lives of a group of long-standing friends... and perfectly pitched memoirist musings -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail * Lore Segal has the sharp analytic eye of a born writer * The New York Times Book Review * Friends die, we grow old, but stories survive ... we are lucky to have this piercing collection from a writer who has known for so long how to tell them * Times Literary Supplement * A spare moving portrait ... tracing the rhythms and bittersweet comedy of aging * Spectator * Moving and powerful -- Brian Maye * Irish Times *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 124 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
188 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-914502-03-3 (9781914502033)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2023
Sort of Books
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Lore Segal (1928 - 2024) was born in Vienna and escaped to England age ten on the Kindertransport. She moved to the USA in 1951 and has been contributing stories to the New Yorker for over sixty years. At age 95, she was elected to the US Academy of Arts and Letters. Sort Of publish three of her novels; Other People's Houses, Ladies' Lunch and An Absence of Cousins.