A New York Times Book of the Year

A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

Winner of the Salon Book Award

A Village Voice Book of the Year

Birds of America is the celebrated collection of twelve stories from Lorrie Moore, one of the finest authors at work today.

“Fluid, cracked, mordant, colloquial…. Stand[s] by itself as one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability.” — The New York Times Book Review

“A marvelous collection…. Her stories are tough, lean, funny, and metaphysical…. Birds of America has about it a wild beauty that simply makes one feel more connected to life.” — The Boston Globe

“At once sad, funny, lyrical and prickly, Birds of America attests to the deepening emotional chiaroscuro of her wise and beguiling work.” — The New York Times

“Stunning…. There’s really no one like Moore; in a perfect marriage of art form and mind, she has made the short story her own.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“ Birds of America stands as a major work of American short fiction…. Absolutely mastered.” — Elle

“Wonderful…. These stories impart such terrifying truths.” — Philadelphia Inquirer

“Lorrie Moore soars with Birds of America .... A marvelous, fiercely funny book.” — Newsweek

“Fifty years from now, it may well turn out that the work of very few American writers has as much to say about what it means to be alive in our time as that of Lorrie Moore.” — Harper’s Magazine

洛丽·摩尔,1957年生于纽约州,十九岁时在美国青少年杂志《十七岁》举办的小说竞赛中获奖。她毕业于康奈尔大学创意写作系,1983年出版第一部短篇小说集《自助》,之后相继出版短篇小说集《像生活那样》、《美国鸟人》、长篇小说《字谜游戏》、《谁将开办青蛙医院？》和《楼梯口的门》。她的短篇小说《你也很丑》被约翰·厄普代克收入他主编的《二十世纪美国最佳短篇小说》。长篇小说《楼梯口的门》入选《纽约时报》2009年度十大好书。

其作品内容之广度、情感之深度和黑色幽默及语言力量,奠定了洛丽·摩尔作为美国当今优秀小说家的地位。她的作品获过欧亨利短篇小说奖、兰南基金会奖和美国艺术文学院奖,还有爱尔兰时报国际小说奖、Rea短篇小说奖和美国笔会马拉默德奖。

在《美国鸟人》这部短篇小说集里,洛丽·摩尔通过不适、不幸、尴尬和迷失等展现人生戏剧的方式,深深叩击城市日常生活中无处不在的恐惧,以及人们无时不在为摆脱这种恐惧而做的努力与徒劳,成功地刻画出一系列不满社会、活无目标、情无着落的当代美国人的形象。