More of This World or Maybe Another [Paperback]

More of This World or Maybe Anotheris a collection of award-winning short fiction about four outsiders whose unruly lives intersect on the back streets of New Orleans from writer Barb Johnson. Funny and haunting by turns, Johnson’s unforgettable characters are driven by something fragile and irresistible, a sputtering drive to love and be loved, in these “stunning stories . . . the kind that reveal, enlarge, and make living seem worth the trouble.” (Dorothy Allison)US

The lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love.

Barb Johnsons beautiful and touching stories stirred up emotions in me that few books ever have&I hate to admit it, [but] I actually cried over a pig in one of the stories, and I used to work in a meatpacking plant! -Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff

Johnson is pitch-perfect in her spare yet lyrical descriptions, especially those of male-female interactions, how going to war changes soldiers, and how love can be damaged or destroyed, as Delia describes her affair with Maggie as a tear in my soul that just wont heal. An insightful literary gem. -Booklist

This debut is elemental, precise, and charged with ragged, intimate grace. As the collections heroine Delia says to her lover, I would say to all readers: Come see. -David Schickler, author of Kissing in Manhattan

Barb Johnson lovingly follows the changes in one New Orleans neighborhood, showing the reader her peoples loves and losses equally. -Stewart O'Nan

[A] gorgeous debut collection&heartbreakingly poignant&if a short story is a slice of life, then the sum of this collection shows the power of a moment, of how a whole life is ultimately comprised of its slices. -Powells.com

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