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    It Will Come Back to You

    Collected Stories

    Author Sigrid Nunez
    Read by Rebecca Lowman, Hillary Huber, Gabra Zackman, Catherine Ho
    Audiobook Download
    Audio | Penguin Audio
    On sale Jul 14, 2026 | 6 Hours and 12 Minutes | 9798217336777
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    NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER BY LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, AND MORE

    "One of the great writers of our time." —Los Angeles Times

    The first ever collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend

    Over the course of thirty years, Sigrid Nunez has become one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive voices, producing nine penetrating, profound novels celebrated by fans and critics alike. Revered for their warm, unadorned style, Nunez’s books are “as sophisticated as they are straightforward” (New York Times Magazine), melding a “wry, withering wit” (NPR) with “explosions of pathos” (Washington Post) to conjure “world[s] of insight into death, grief, art, and love” (Wall Street Journal).

    But she has not, until now, produced a book of stories. In It Will Come Back to You, Nunez brings together thirteen of her best stories from the decades-long sweep of her career, tracing the origins of her style and her remarkable artistic range. Moving from the momentous to the mundane, Nunez maintains her expert balance between gravity and levity while probing the philosophical questions that illuminate her work.

    What New York Times critic Dwight Garner says of Nunez’s novels is true of these stories as well: “They are . . . wise, provocative, funny—good and strong company.”
    © Adam Lerner
    Sigrid Nunez is the author of nine novels, including The Friend, What Are You Going Through, and The Vulnerables. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has received the National Book Award, the Whiting Award, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives in New York City. View titles by Sigrid Nunez
    Praise for It Will Come Back to You

    “One of the great writers of our time…Reading [Nunez's] work feels like having lunch with your smartest, wisest, most empathetic friend.” —Los Angeles Times

    “[Nunez] can turn the everyday into something quietly devastating, then slip in a line that makes you laugh despite yourself.” —Oprah Daily

     “Like all of her writing, Nunez injects these stories with a deep tenderness and a wry sense of humor, all the while challenging our conceptions of what it means to live an ordinary life.” —Harper's Bazaar

    "Nunez dazzles in her debut collection of stories, highlighting characters as they map the contours of their inner lives." —The Boston Globe
    "[A] masterful career-spanning story collection.… Nunez’s sharp wit remains a steady presence across the collection, roaming freely from one heavy subject to the next without ever slipping into sentimentality. It’s a treasure trove.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

    “Nunez delivers vivid portraits of people living quiet lives of desperation in these sterling short stories… A welcome addition to an already much esteemed body of work.” —Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

    “Dazzling…Nunez has a gift for surprise.” —Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

    Praise for Sigrid Nunez

    “Nunez has a wry, withering wit.” —NPR

    “Nunez’s prose itself comforts us. Her confidence and direct style uplifts—the music in her sentences, her deep and varied intelligence.” —The New York Times Book Review

    “Nunez has exhibited a gift for storytelling forms that smuggle dark matter into books, which nonetheless, proceed with bright, good humor.” —The New York Times Magazine

    “A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent.” —New York Times

    About

    NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER BY LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE BOSTON GLOBE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, AND MORE

    "One of the great writers of our time." —Los Angeles Times

    The first ever collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of The Friend

    Over the course of thirty years, Sigrid Nunez has become one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive voices, producing nine penetrating, profound novels celebrated by fans and critics alike. Revered for their warm, unadorned style, Nunez’s books are “as sophisticated as they are straightforward” (New York Times Magazine), melding a “wry, withering wit” (NPR) with “explosions of pathos” (Washington Post) to conjure “world[s] of insight into death, grief, art, and love” (Wall Street Journal).

    But she has not, until now, produced a book of stories. In It Will Come Back to You, Nunez brings together thirteen of her best stories from the decades-long sweep of her career, tracing the origins of her style and her remarkable artistic range. Moving from the momentous to the mundane, Nunez maintains her expert balance between gravity and levity while probing the philosophical questions that illuminate her work.

    What New York Times critic Dwight Garner says of Nunez’s novels is true of these stories as well: “They are . . . wise, provocative, funny—good and strong company.”

    Author

    © Adam Lerner
    Sigrid Nunez is the author of nine novels, including The Friend, What Are You Going Through, and The Vulnerables. She is also the author of Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag. She has received the National Book Award, the Whiting Award, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, the Rome Prize in Literature, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. Her work has been translated into thirty-five languages. She lives in New York City. View titles by Sigrid Nunez

    Praise

    Praise for It Will Come Back to You

    “One of the great writers of our time…Reading [Nunez's] work feels like having lunch with your smartest, wisest, most empathetic friend.” —Los Angeles Times

    “[Nunez] can turn the everyday into something quietly devastating, then slip in a line that makes you laugh despite yourself.” —Oprah Daily

     “Like all of her writing, Nunez injects these stories with a deep tenderness and a wry sense of humor, all the while challenging our conceptions of what it means to live an ordinary life.” —Harper's Bazaar

    "Nunez dazzles in her debut collection of stories, highlighting characters as they map the contours of their inner lives." —The Boston Globe
    "[A] masterful career-spanning story collection.… Nunez’s sharp wit remains a steady presence across the collection, roaming freely from one heavy subject to the next without ever slipping into sentimentality. It’s a treasure trove.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

    “Nunez delivers vivid portraits of people living quiet lives of desperation in these sterling short stories… A welcome addition to an already much esteemed body of work.” —Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

    “Dazzling…Nunez has a gift for surprise.” —Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

    Praise for Sigrid Nunez

    “Nunez has a wry, withering wit.” —NPR

    “Nunez’s prose itself comforts us. Her confidence and direct style uplifts—the music in her sentences, her deep and varied intelligence.” —The New York Times Book Review

    “Nunez has exhibited a gift for storytelling forms that smuggle dark matter into books, which nonetheless, proceed with bright, good humor.” —The New York Times Magazine

    “A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent.” —New York Times

    Additional formats

    Other Books by this Author

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