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Winner of the 2024 Kellman Prize for Immigrant Literature
With the puckish humor of Fran Lebowitz and the keen inventiveness of Lydia Davis, Sofi Stambo's debut collection leans into curiosity, family, and the old-world bonds that draw her motley characters together.
A nervous dog takes flight over New York. A woman soothes her neighbors with multilingual telepathy. A purse snatcher inherits her victim's scribbled lists—and her worries. In these stories, immigrants dance and laugh their way out of absurd situations and into even messier ones, passing through diners, offices, and painter's workshops. Casting about for words to match their new realities, they reshape the English language and greet chaos with a grin.
Bursting with warmth and buzzing with wit, People Who Live Alone Talk Too Much pulls at the threads of daily life, unwinding the ordinary into scenes of hilarity, introspection, and surprising connection.
