Synopsis "Fast Lanes "

Jayne Anne Phillips has always been a master of portraiture, both in her widely acclaimed novels and in her short fiction. The stories in Fast Lanes demonstrated the breadth of her talent in a tour de force of voices, offering elegantly rendered views into the lives of characters torn between the liberation of detachment and the desire to connect.Three stories are collected in this edition for the first time: in "Alma," and adolescent daughter is made the confidante of her lonely mother; "Counting" traces the history of a dommed love affair; and "Callie" evokes memories of the haunting death of a child in 1920's West Virginia. Along with the original seven stories from Fast Lanes--each told in extraordinary first person narratives that have been hailed by critics as virtuoso performances--these incandescent portraits offer windows into the lives of an entire generation of Americans, demonstrating again and again why Jayne Anne Phillips remains one of our most powerful writers.

Jayne Anne Phillips

(Author)

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Jayne Anne Phillips (West Virginia, USA, 1952) is an acclaimed writer and professor. She has held teaching positions at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and Boston University, and has published anthologies, novels, short stories, and essays.

Her literary work includes “Black Tickets” (1979), a collection of stories that established her as a distinctive voice in American literature. “Machine Dreams” (1984), and “Lark and Termite” (2009), nominated for the National Book Award. Her most recent novel, “Night Watch” (2023), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2024.

Phillips has been awarded the Pushcart Prize and the Fels Prize from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses for her book “Sweethearts”, and in 2024 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her work has been translated into more than ten languages, consolidating her international recognition.

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