ABOUT THIS BOOK

The Thief of Words is filled with desperate runaways, the unhappily married, and the displaced. These characters often long for happiness but struggle to explain—even to themselves—what that would entail.

The lightly interconnected stories in this riveting collection are split between the Polish American communities of northern Wisconsin and Louisiana, where refugees from World War II were resettled. Exploring themes of dislocation and assimilation, love and loneliness, and generational conflict, Anthony Bukoski admirably paints portraits of people doing their best, despite the odds and their sometimes-thwarted attempts to follow the urgings of their better angels.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Anthony Bukoski is an award-winning writer and a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. A professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin–Superior, he is the author of the collections The Blondes of Wisconsin, Time between Trains, Children of Strangers, and Polonaise.

REVIEWS

“One of the foremost Polish American writers.”

— Polish Review

“This earnest collection finds characters navigating their lives as realities around them and connections to others shift. . . . Bukoski’s stories finely capture the unobserved weight of identity and things left behind.”

— Booklist

“A polonaise for the displaced of Superior, Wisconsin. Bukoski suffuses his stories with tenderness, longing, and humor. The book is the culmination of decades of work and craftsmanship, a masterful elegy gifted to his loyal readers and the beloved characters who will haunt us in all the best ways, long after the last page has been turned.”

— Rachel Swearingen, author of How to Walk on Water and Other Stories

“A moving love song to displaced persons that explores at its core our shared responsibility to each other. From one of the finest short story writers in the country today, this is a collection that lifts and fills every cranny of the human heart.”

— Carol Dunbar, author of The Net Beneath Us

“If you like good stories you can sink your teeth into and chew on for a while, The Thief of Words is for you. . . . [A] stunning collection. . . . Bukoski draws realistic characters into a masterful narrative that should leave anyone spellbound.”

— Michael Tidemann, Writers and Writing

Finalist, Foreword INDIES Short Story Award

— Finalist, Foreword INDIES Short Story Award

Finalist, Wisconsin Writers Awards

— Finalist, Wisconsin Writers Awards

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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