Body

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The body: the sum of many diverse parts, each with its own distinct functions, purpose, characteristics, and personality. In toto--in a corporal sense--it is who and what we are; what we cherish, protect, and admire; what we fear, detest, and resent. It is the "you" others immediately recognize, both comfortably familiar and maddeningly inscrutable to the "I" who inhabits it--at once a vessel, a dear friend, a stern judge, and a treacherous betrayer.

In Body, eighteen great contemporary American writers explore the singular components of this extraordinary whole, in short literary observations and appreciations that range from the visceral to the whimsical to the sinful and metaphysical.
- In "Eyes," Michael Knight explores the biological evolution of sight and unexpectedly discovers a hidden truth...about human love.
- Leah Hager Cohen examines the dichotomies of "Breasts"--a source of life...or poison.
- Jacki Lyden considers the thought processes and questionable memories of her mother--and their funny and heartbreaking familial repercussions--in "The Brain."
- Richard McCann offers a powerful, startling, and darkly humorous personal look at organ transplantation in "The Resurrectionist."
- And Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley's riveting "Belly, Dancing, Belly, Aching, Belly, Breasts" celebrates the female abdomen in its many incarnations: swollen and distended with life; flat with sexuality; ripened with age.

A strong and worthy literary companion to the critically acclaimed collections Home and Family, Body is, by turns, passionate and serene, sensuous, urgent, tender, and tragic--illuminated by dazzling wit and incandescent beauty--and it will enthrall anyone and everyone who lives and breathes and delights in the written word.

Portions of the proceeds from Body will be donated to Charity