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A collection of stories set in Washington, DC, full of scandal and insider details...An exciting read bristling with intelligence, political awareness, and psychological complexity. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Leslie Pietrzyk takes a scalpel to white Washington, DC, and doesn't flinch as she cuts it open. In these breathless (sometimes jaw-dropping) stories, Leslie dissects with precision, giving us every lonely, sad, and selfish thought from characters we've met at least once in the nation's capital. -- Melanie S. Hatter, author of Malawi's Sisters Pietrzyk dissects the messy interpersonal power dynamics of Washington, DC in this sharp debut collection of linked stories...Pietrzyk writes with insight and wit, and makes even tertiary characters feel fully developed. This ambitious work is pulled off with verve. -- Publishers Weekly Pietrzyk provides an irresistible glimpse behind the curtain at the world of political DC, at those women whose misfortune it is to live in the shadow of a 'great' man. What is it like to be the unwanted daughter of a famous father--and is it better or worse to be his favorite? Pietrzyk is insightful and unyielding in the examination of these deeply flawed characters...Told with unsparing frankness in prose that cuts like a razor, these stories are as tough and as vulnerable as the lives they portray. -- Paula Whyman, author of You May See a Stranger Themes of power inequities, performative racial allyship, and sexual harassment wind through these brief but detailed sketches of America's complicated and often unwritten rules of etiquette. -- Foreword Reviews

"A collection of stories set in Washington, DC, full of scandal and insider details...An exciting read bristling with intelligence, political awareness, and psychological complexity. -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" Leslie Pietrzyk takes a scalpel to white Washington, DC, and doesn't flinch as she cuts it open. In these breathless (sometimes jaw-dropping) stories, Leslie dissects with precision, giving us every lonely, sad, and selfish thought from characters we've met at least once in the nation's capital. -- ""Melanie S. Hatter, author of Malawi's Sisters"" Pietrzyk dissects the messy interpersonal power dynamics of Washington, DC in this sharp debut collection of linked stories...Pietrzyk writes with insight and wit, and makes even tertiary characters feel fully developed. This ambitious work is pulled off with verve. -- ""Publishers Weekly"" Pietrzyk provides an irresistible glimpse behind the curtain at the world of political DC, at those women whose misfortune it is to live in the shadow of a 'great' man. What is it like to be the unwanted daughter of a famous father--and is it better or worse to be his favorite? Pietrzyk is insightful and unyielding in the examination of these deeply flawed characters...Told with unsparing frankness in prose that cuts like a razor, these stories are as tough and as vulnerable as the lives they portray. -- ""Paula Whyman, author of You May See a Stranger"" Themes of power inequities, performative racial allyship, and sexual harassment wind through these brief but detailed sketches of America's complicated and often unwritten rules of etiquette. -- ""Foreword Reviews"""

Author Information

Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of three novels, including Silver Girl, published by Unnamed Press in 2018. Her first collection of short stories, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was published by University of Pittsburgh Press. Short fiction and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, Story magazine, Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, Washingtonian, The Sun, the Washington Post Magazine, and others. Awards include a Pushcart Prize in 2020 and the 2020 Creative Arts Prize from the Polish American Historical Association. Organizations awarding fellowships include the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, Virginia Center for the Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Hambidge Center, and Hawthornden International Retreat at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. Tim Campbell, winner of AudioFile Earphones Awards, is a narrator and actor based in Los Angeles, California. He studied at the University of California and earned a BA in music and theater and a certification from the prestigious Great Books program at Pepperdine University, where he graduated magna cum laude. He is also a classically trained singer and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Opera Chorus, as well as on studio soundtracks for film and television. Original bio sent from Cassandra: Cassandra Campbell began doing voice overs as the voice for Calvin Klein's Italian commercials. This was followed by commercial and documentary recording in both English and Italian. She has recorded many audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie(R) Award nomination. As an actress and director, she has worked at the Public, the Mint, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stagewest, Theatreworks, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Millmountain Theatre, the National Shakespeare Company, and the New York Fringe Festival. Chelsea Stephens is an experienced voice actor with a talent for mystery, sci-fi, and YA novels. She won an AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. She has a longtime love and appreciation for the performing arts, with experience in on-stage acting, singing, and voice-over. Her love for reading books and the pursuit of the story led her to narration. She enjoys unfolding characters and bringing listeners into new worlds. Elizabeth Evans has received many grants and fellowships for her writing, including an NEA Fellowship, the James Michener Fellowship, and fellowships at Yaddo and MacDowell. She is the author of The Blue Hour and lives in Tucson, Arizona. Bronson Pinchot, Audible's Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible's Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People's Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture. SUZIE ALTHENS records from her professional studio in Alaska, near the beautiful Matanuska Glacier. She narrates regularly for major publishers and specializes in audiobooks and e-learning. Suzie is enthusiastic about narrating nonfiction as it provides opportunities to share amazing memoirs, medical discoveries, and inspiration, but she also enjoys mysteries and women's fiction. Suzie narrates children's encyclopedias and donates time to narrate children's fiction for Learning Ally, a nonprofit organization, when she has the opening to woo the reluctant young reader. Coming soon... Hillary Huber is one of the most successful voice talents in Los Angeles. Recent books read for Blackstone Audio include Him, Her, Him Again, the End of Him by Patricia Marx, A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read, and A Map of Glass by Jane Urquhart.

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