From personal experience, I completely agree that it is often easier to go for monotone sadness. When I was starting out, I wrote a gazillion short stories that ran the gamut of human suffering - drug addiction, child abuse, terminal… — Anthony Marra Copy Share Image
The short story that eventually grew into Constellation was the first fiction set in Russia that I'd ever written, and that was right around the time I was giving up on a doomed, never-to-be-seen first novel. While I saw it… — Anthony Marra Copy Share Image
“Carrying that lumber the forty meters from the forest had left his knuckles blistered, his underarms sopping, but now a few hours of flames… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“The previous night, for the first time in a long time, he had felt whole, and his eyes returned to the rearview, where his… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“At the kitchen table she examined the glass of ice. Each cube was rounded by room temperature, dissolving in its own remains, and belatedly… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“The television dramas we grew up on, stories of star-crossed lovers, stories of love overcoming all obstacles, well, they’re all fairy tales, obviously, like… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“He had always tried to treat Havaa as a child and she always went along with it, as though childhood and innocence were fantastical… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“He asked them to close their eyes, and hoped their mouths would follow suit.” p. 137” — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“Don't insult me. Everyone knows a turtle is a crustacean on its mother's side.” — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“Those smooth, spit-cleaned cheeks gave no indication of the dreams crowding her skull. Should she make it to adulthood, the girl would arrive with… — anthony marra Copy Share
“In all likelihood, Sonja had more academic journal subscriptions than friends. She could explain advanced calculus to her fifth-form algebra teacher but couldn't tell… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“Even after Sonja graduated secondary school at the top of her class and matriculated to the city university biology department, their parents found more… — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“He was losing her incrementally...As a web is no more than holes woven together, they were bonded by what was no longer there.” — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“Too young to explain in words, the girl's face was old enough to show the loss that was that name.” — Anthony Marra Copy Share
“A lizard fucks a crab and nine months later a turtle pops out. It's called evolution.” — Anthony Marra Copy Share
