In his first new fiction since winning the National Book Award
for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, best-selling
author Sherman Alexie delivers a virtuoso collection of tender,
witty, and soulful stories that expertly capture modern
relationships from the most diverse angles. War Dances brims with
Alexie’s poetic and revolutionary prose, and reminds us once again
why he ranks as one of our country’s finest writers.
With bright insight into the minds of artists, entrepreneurs,
fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with
average men on the brink of exceptional change: In the title story,
a son recalls his father’s “natural Indian death” from alcohol and
diabetes, just as he learns that he himself may have a brain tumor;
“The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless,” dissects a vintage clothing store
owner’s failing marriage and courtship of a Puma-clad stranger in
airports across the country; and “Breaking and Entering” recounts a
film editor’s fateful confrontation with an thieving
adolescent.
Brazen and wise War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means
to be human. The new beginnings, successes, mistakes, and regrets
that make up our daily lives are laid bare in this wide-ranging new
work that is quintessential