A definitive collection of new and selected stories by a master of the form “Comparisons might
be drawn to writers ranging from Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami to Margaret Atwood and
J. D. Salinger. All of Lethem’s stories are enlivened by his wit and provocative wordplay.”
—Chicago Tribune This dazzling genre-defying collection from Jonathan Lethem features seven
major stories published since his last collection along with his best work spanning more than
three decades. A major new story “The Red Sun School of Thoughts ” never published before
follows a teenage boy coming to terms with figures of authority and power—those in both his
biological family and in the family he creates for himself. Elsewhere we meet “Super Goat Man ”
a down-at-heels bohemian superhero “The Porn Critic ” whose accidental expertise wrecks his
own romantic aspirations and “Sleepy People ” who pose interpersonal conundrums without ever
rousing from their slumber. Fluidly moving between realism and the surreal the absurd and the
mundane A Different Kind of Tension is a container bursting with life and death couples in
trouble talking animals and technologies on the fritz. Through it all are people longing to
be seen and to connect to thrive love and be forgiven. “This is the joy of reading Jonathan
Lethem: you never know what you’re going to get.” ( Financial Times )
