List of All Possible Desires: A Novel in Stories
List of All Possible Desires: A Novel in Stories
List of All Possible Desires: A Novel in Stories
Description
Description
A dazzling novel in stories from a master of the form that follows the Royal family across generations of obsession, betrayal, and reinvention. For fans of Mary Gaitskill and Lauren Groff. In postwar Paris, a boy is seduced by his mysterious nanny into the world of adult secrets. In 1950s New York City, a naïve caretaker struggles to protect her charge, a married woman paralyzed by her recent stroke, as new bruises appear each day on her body. In the 1970s, a fragile cousin wanders into the Royal family's jazz-soaked townhouse, where music, sex, and ruin intertwine. And at the heart of these stories is Rainey Royal herself, coming of age in Greenwich Village, inventing herself as an artist through the tumult of the '70s and '80s. By turns shocking, erotic, and deeply humane, List of All Possible Desires is a haunting portrait of family and history--written with Landis's trademark beauty and precision.
About the Author
About the Author
Dylan Landis is the author of the novel Rainey Royal, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and the novel in stories Normal People Don't Live Like This, both in the Rainey Royal Cycle. Her work has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and other anthologies. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction and lives in Los Angeles.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for List of All Possible Desires "A dazzling cycle of stories revolving around a complicated, fascinating, talented young badass . . . Other people write with words; Landis seems to write with mercury."
--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Dazzling, electrifying, and razor-sharp, this collection brilliantly expands Dylan Landis's New York of the 1970s and '80s, a world where fragile, defiant girls grow into clear-eyed, truth-seeking women. Gorgeously crafted and fearlessly told--I savored every page."
--Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar "The Rainey Royal books are the greatest literary puzzle since the Neapolitan Quartet, full of complex relationships among women and within families, revealing their full meaning only once you place the final piece."
--Pamela Redmond, New York Times bestselling author of Younger "Dylan Landis is the quintessential bard of the do-it-yourself morality of the seventies, its experiments and failures. These twelve stories achingly demonstrate how wounded children become wounding adults, toggling between states of burn-it-to-the-ground rebellion and moments of pure grace."
--Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander "These stories have the elegance and assurance of classics--individual jewels strung together into a stunning and mesmeric whole."
--Dan Chaon, author of One of Us "The entwined, can't-put-them-down stories of List of All Possible Desires expand and relayer the endlessly compelling world of Rainey Royal. Rainey is all of us, our longings and contradictions, our frailties and strengths, our determination to take our mess of a life into our own hands and make of it an authentic work of art. These stories slice your heart in two--but then Landis heals and inspires with her exquisite prose, deep insight, and literary grace."
--Tara Ison, author of At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf Praise for the Rainey Royal cycle "[Rainey is] achingly vulnerable and cruelly intimidating."
--The New York Times Book Review "Dylan Landis's Rainey Royal is like its heroine: fierce, winning, and sharp as a blade."
--Vanity Fair "Rainey will remain in my mind forever as one of my favorite characters."
--ELLE
--Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Dazzling, electrifying, and razor-sharp, this collection brilliantly expands Dylan Landis's New York of the 1970s and '80s, a world where fragile, defiant girls grow into clear-eyed, truth-seeking women. Gorgeously crafted and fearlessly told--I savored every page."
--Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar "The Rainey Royal books are the greatest literary puzzle since the Neapolitan Quartet, full of complex relationships among women and within families, revealing their full meaning only once you place the final piece."
--Pamela Redmond, New York Times bestselling author of Younger "Dylan Landis is the quintessential bard of the do-it-yourself morality of the seventies, its experiments and failures. These twelve stories achingly demonstrate how wounded children become wounding adults, toggling between states of burn-it-to-the-ground rebellion and moments of pure grace."
--Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander "These stories have the elegance and assurance of classics--individual jewels strung together into a stunning and mesmeric whole."
--Dan Chaon, author of One of Us "The entwined, can't-put-them-down stories of List of All Possible Desires expand and relayer the endlessly compelling world of Rainey Royal. Rainey is all of us, our longings and contradictions, our frailties and strengths, our determination to take our mess of a life into our own hands and make of it an authentic work of art. These stories slice your heart in two--but then Landis heals and inspires with her exquisite prose, deep insight, and literary grace."
--Tara Ison, author of At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf Praise for the Rainey Royal cycle "[Rainey is] achingly vulnerable and cruelly intimidating."
--The New York Times Book Review "Dylan Landis's Rainey Royal is like its heroine: fierce, winning, and sharp as a blade."
--Vanity Fair "Rainey will remain in my mind forever as one of my favorite characters."
--ELLE
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Soho Press
Pub date:
2026-05-05
Length:
304 pages
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