Hard to Be Good

The first short story collection from the acclaimed non-fiction writer contains eight stories, six of which were originally published in the New Yorker. From a mildly troubled adolescent who moves from innocence to experience over the course of a summer with his estranged mother (“Hard to Be Good”) to a former rock musician protecting himself against the bitterness of a failed romance (“Too Much Elecrticity”), Barich treats his characters with loving empathy and gentle humor. His eye for the specific and the delightful ease of his prose style allow him to find the extraordinary in the lives of ordinary Americans.