It Will Come Back to You

Collected Stories

By: Sigrid Nunez

"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.”

Critic reviews

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

"[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)

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