Sigrid Nunez with Namwali Serpell: It Will Come Back to You

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• ASL interpretation may be provided (based on the availability of interpreters) but must be requested at least 2 weeks in advance of the event.
• Please email us at [email protected] as soon as possible if you require ASL interpretation, guaranteed seating, or other accommodations. Seats are limited.We will do our best to serve your needs!

The first ever collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend.
Over the course of thirty years, Sigrid Nunez has become one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive voices, producing nine penetrating, profound novels celebrated by fans and critics alike. Revered for their warm, unadorned style, Nunez’s books are “as sophisticated as they are straightforward” (New York Times Magazine), melding a “wry, withering wit” (NPR) with “explosions of pathos” (Washington Post) to conjure “world[s] of insight into death, grief, art, and love” (Wall Street Journal).
But she has not, until now, produced a book of stories. In It Will Come Back to You, Nunez brings together thirteen of her best stories from the decades-long sweep of her career, tracing the origins of her style and her remarkable artistic range. Moving from the momentous to the mundane, Nunez maintains her expert balance between gravity and levity while probing the philosophical questions that illuminate her work.

Sigrid Nunez is the author of nine novels, including The Friend, What Are You Going Through, and The Vulnerables. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has received the National Book Award, the Whiting Award, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives in New York City.

Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer and a Professor of English at Harvard University. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction, a Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction, a Caine Prize for African Writing, and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Her first novel, The Old Drift, won an Anisfield-Wolf prize, an Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, and an Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Her second novel, The Furrows, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and named one of the New York Times' 10 Best Books of the Year. Her book of essays, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Her work of criticism, On Morrison, was published in 2026.

Brookline Booksmith, thriving in the heart of Coolidge Corner in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1961, is one of New England’s premier independent bookstores. We offer a vast selection of books, ranging from current bestsellers to the most eclectic titles. We are also known for our beautiful and inspired gifts. Customers buy and sell gently used books in our treasured Used Book Cellar and enjoy our bountiful bargain book selection. We host award-winning events series (including our groundbreaking Transnational Literature Series), offering more than 300 author talks, community conversations, and book clubs annually. Find more at brooklinebooksmith.com!

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