On the Observation Car: Stories

“…finely tuned insight[s] into the human spirit… with a true gift for both language and storytelling.”  Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Series, on Deluge. “Johnson’s sentences shimmer, dip, swoop, and stretch.  …by turns wily, sad, violent, somber, and hopeful.”  Daniel Woodrell, The New York Times, on Don’t Think Twice. “…dazzling …mythic …realistic  … archetypally grand.”  Booklist, on The Devil You Know. From New York Times Notable Book and Pulitzer Prize nominated author Wayne Johnson comes On the Observation Car, a brilliant new collection of stories—comedic, surprising, and delightful.  From a portrait of a colorfully ingenious boy who, after being abandoned by his mother, finds himself in a strange and dangerous new world, to a searing examination of the effects of what once was called “racial prejudice” in “Eighty Acres,” these stories grip the imagination with a rare and powerful clarity. Originally published in Ploughshares, New Letters, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere, these award-winning stories are about the issues that are essential to us all: how we find the courage to live; how we acquire freedom, despite the costs; and how we love.  All of Johnson’s stories, rendered through a sharp-eyed realism, take us into a world that touches the very heart of the human condition.