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Synopsis
Exploring childhood ambition, youthful desire, midlife reinvention and the unsparing clarity of old age, Ozeki brings us eleven richly imagined stories of characters standing at life's thresholds.A college student falls for her professor and learns to transmute longing into language. A disquieted husband watches as the ghost of his wife's ambition roams the woods outside their home. A long-deceased Beat poet hijacks the mind of a young publishing assistant and rails against the state of modern literature. A curious grandmother creates a fake online dating profile to spy on her granddaughter's romantic life - and sets in motion a deception she can't control.Spanning eras and geographies, The Typing Lady is an electrifying meditation on the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we abandon and the stories we become. Threaded with the tactile ephemera of writing - typewriters, letters, manuscripts and disappearing ink - the book reveals how we record ourselves in language, and how language, over time, records us in return.
Is The Typing Lady appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
This literary short story collection explores adult themes including desire, marital tension, death, and deception across multiple life stages. The magical realism element (a ghost poet possessing someone) and mature relationship themes make it appropriate for older teens and adults.
What to know going in
This book has no graphic violence, mild sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death and grief.
Who'll love this
Mature readers will appreciate these interconnected stories about people at different life crossroads, from college romance to grandmotherly schemes.