{A Short History of Women}
“Nearly everything about Kate Walbert’s new novel is wickedly smart, starting with the title: “A Short History of Women.” Does it connote modesty or grandeur? “Short” sounds modest. “History” sounds grand — grandiose, in fact, when affixed to a work of fiction. But “Women” clinches it: modest, then. After all, what more trifling subject could one elect to research? Such, at any rate, is the prevailing view in the world inhabited by Walbert’s characters — all five generations of them. One of the book’s accomplishments is that it persuades us that this sentiment holds no less currency in 21st- century America than it did in late Victorian England. But Walbert’s primary concerns — unlike those of some of her characters — aren’t political. Her writing wears both its intelligence and its ideology lightly. No manifesto, this is a gorgeously wrought and ultimately wrenching work of art.”
—Leah Hager Cohen, The New York Times
Named one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2009
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award
{Our Kind}
“With stunning lyricism and acute wisdom, Kate Walbert takes us into the lives of women of a certain age ... A superb and musical performance, this novel-in-stories reminds us of those most basic human needs and desires that link us all, no matter our gender or status.” —From the National Book Award citation, 2004
Finalist for the 2004 National Book Award
{The Gardens of Kyoto}
“Kate Walbert’s fine, delicate prose captures voices that we don’t hear much anymore, and she guides us from past to present, and from death to life, with … deep understanding.” —Amy Bloom, author of Away
Winner of the 2002 Connecticut Book Award for Fiction
{Where She Went}
“Lyrical, sad, beautiful, and triumphant stories of journeys deep inside one’s soul.” —Edwidge Danticat, author of The Dew Breaker