{
    "id": 363840,
    "slug": "a-better-angel",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "A Better Angel",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "<p>The stories in <em>A Better Angel</em> describe the terrain of human suffering - illness, regret, mourning, sympathy - in the most unusual of ways. In 'Stab,' a bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother. In 'Why Antichrist?' a boy tries to contact the spirit of his dead father and finds himself talking to the Devil instead. In the remarkable title story, a ne'er do well pediatrician returns home to take care of his dying father, all the while under the scrutiny of an easily-disappointed heavenly agent.<br /><br />With <em>Gob's Grief</em> and <em>The Children's Hospital</em>, Chris Adrian announced himself as a writer of rare talent and originality. The stories in <em>A Better Angel</em>, some of which have appeared in <em>The</em> <em>New Yorker</em>, <em>Tin House</em>, and <em>McSweeney's</em>, demonstrate more of his endless inventiveness and wit, and they confirm his growing reputation as a most exciting and unusual literary voice - of heartbreaking, magical, and darkly comic tales.</p>",
    "additional_content": null,
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    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 226,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2008-11-07",
    "publication_date_latest": "2008-11-07",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781847084989",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
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    "rating_average": null,
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        "5": 0
    },
    "hebban_rank": null,
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:29:56+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-14T03:54:36+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 2850,
        "slug": "granta-books",
        "name": "Granta Books",
        "gau": false,
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:19:46+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:11:46+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 221806,
            "slug": "chris-adrian-2",
            "key_names": "Adrian",
            "names_before_key": "Chris",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "334",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:29:56+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:29:56+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "tags": [],
    "campaigns": []
}