One of Us: Stories

Winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize in Short Fiction

“The stories in One of Us kept knocking me off my feet and pulling me back up, drawing me in with their heart and intelligence, then flooring me with unexpected moves. They are wonderfully wide-ranging—leaping from past to present and back, as apt to gentle a figure out of history as to explode with immediacy—yet they are all linked by a clear-eyed honesty, a sense of wonder and dread, an ability to land suspense with surprising weight. These are ripping good tales by a remarkably gifted writer.”

—Josh Weil, author of The Age of Perpetual Light and winner of National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Award

 “Whether probing the aches and bafflements of suburban adolescence or bringing the horrors of history to life, Scott Nadelson’s stories are always finely-tuned and full of surprises. Small moments lead to big questions about what it means to be a man, an American, a Jew, or—inevitably—all of these things at once. When we say someone is One of Us, who is the “one” and who is the “us,” and what do they—what do we—owe to each other? Every story in this wise, heartfelt, moving collection addresses this complicated question, which may ultimately be unanswerable. But Nadelson has done the crucial thing, which is to ask and ask and ask.”

—Justin Taylor, author of Riding with the Ghost

 “Striving artists. Delinquent boys. Rival neighbors. Couples who suddenly discover that ‘nothing as ecstatic as love’s first flare ever lasts.’ In Scott Nadelson’s stories, these memorable characters either are ‘one of us’ or outcasts trying to find their way back into the pack. Along the way they force themselves and the reader to pose the question, “’s this a world worth thriving in?’ One of Us offers a rich array of surprising character-driven plots and is a perfect example of storytelling at its best.

—Rita Ciresi, author of Sometimes I Dream in Italian and  Bring Back My Body to Me