Granta 8

Dirty Realism is the fiction of a new generation of American authors. They write about the belly-side of contemporary life - a deserted husband an unwed mother a car thief a pickpocket a drug addict - but they write about it with a disturbing detachment at times verging on comedy. Understated ironic sometimes savage but insistently compassionate these stories constitute a new voice in fiction. In this special feature Granta presents a group of younger authors - many published in Britain for the first time - who writing in a strange exaggerated style have single-handedly revitalized the short story. 'These writers' Tobias Wolff has observed 'while not necessarily a school nevertheless form a new voice. They are able to speak to us about the things that matter. '. Language: English