The Small Backs of Children
Lidia Yuknavitch
“Pity the small backs of children, he heard her saying. They carry death for us the second they are born.”
Available as Paperback, eBook
A fiercely provocative novel, exploring the treacherous borders between war and sex, love and art, from the author of The Book of Joan and The Chronology of Water
In a war-torn village in Eastern Europe, an American photographer captures a heart-stopping image: a young girl fleeing a fiery explosion that has engulfed her home and family. It becomes an icon for millions, winning acclaim and prizes – and a subject of obsession for one writer, the photographer’s best friend, who has suffered a tragedy of her own. With the flash of a camera, one girl’s life is shattered and another’s is altered forever.
“Wild … genuinely subversive”
new Yorker
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“A tour de force”
los Angeles Review Of Books
“Intensely corporeal, potently feminist, tenaciously written”
boston Globe
“Lidia Yuknavitch burns through sex, art, and war”
vanity Fair
“Explosive … with a vital intensity that grabs at the gutstrings”
los Angeles Times
Lidia Yuknavitch
Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the novels The Book of Joan, The Small Backs of Children and Dora: A Headcase as well as a highly acclaimed memoir, The Chronology of Water. Her TED talk, ‘The Beauty of Being a Misfit’, has been watched over two million times. Lidia teaches in Oregon, where she lives with her husband and their son.
@LidiaYuknavitch | lidiayuknavitch.net