"Forged from the world with a sharp eye and a careful ear, serving no agenda but literature's primary and oft-forgotten one: the delight of the reader." --"The New York Times Book Review""Gutsy, brilliantly imagined, strongly made, fresh and propulsive." --"Chicago Tribune""With a near spooky sense of empathy and a wit that finds its mark like lightning, the stories in Jim Shepard's "Like You'd Understand, Anyway "transport readers light-years beyond what they think they know of the world." --"Vanity Fair""Exquisite, multifaceted tales." --"The New Yorker ""A macro book with a micro eye. These wildly diverse stories share a fascination with the inevitable cost of familial obligation and the inescapable fallout from disaster, both natural and human-made." --"Los Angeles Times Book Review""Cannily crafted. . . . The stories couldn't be funnier-or deadlier-in this mad-smart, wildly inventive set." --"Elle " "Jim Shepard is really a terrific writer. And it's not just the precision of the sentences. . . . It is the way he captures people throughout time with such an exact piercing, as though he's mapped out every corresponding nerve that can make us go weak at the knees." --"Providence Journal""An astounding set of stories . . . so dangerously brilliant, they're radioactive." --"O Magazine """