About this ebook
In two jewel-like novellas, Claire Messud explores isolation and the nature of love. “A Simple Tale” is the moving story of Maria Poniatowski, an aging Ukrainian woman who, after liberation from servitude to the Germans, struggles with a new life in Canada. What of the past is she able to preserve, without burdening her present? “The Hunters,” the second novella, tells the story of an American academic in London who grows obsessed with the neighbors downstairs. Loneliness breeds an active imagination, one that may be destructive.
About the author
Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
