Onlookers - Stories

* “Supple, superb.” —The Boston Globe * “A deft mash of lonesomeness and wit.” —Chicago Tribune * “Her best in more than two decades.” —The New York Times *

Award-winning short story writer Ann Beattie returns with a “sophisticated, idiosyncratic, and witty” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) collection of linked stories set in Charlottesville, Virginia, in a moment of unrest.

Onlookers is collection of extraordinary stories about people living in the same Southern town whose lives intersect in surprising ways. Peaceful Charlottesville, Virginia, drew national attention when white nationalists held a rally there in 2017, a horrific event whose repercussions are still felt today. Confederate monuments such as General Robert E. Lee atop his horse were then still standing. The statues are a constant presence and a metaphoric refrain throughout this collection, though t