("Reading Thoreau's Laundry is like taking many journeys with the best possible traveling companion, one who makes the world more vivid, more resonant, more interesting at the deepest level."--Margot Livesey

The twelve stories in Ann Harleman's second fiction collection span a century (from 1911 to the present) and range over two continents. Her characters confront love and loss--heartbreak, adultery, divorce, chronic degenerative illness, disability, and death--within a context of political and social upheaval. Their personal battles are intensified by the trials of their times: the onset of World War I, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain, the Cold War, the urban warfare in America's inner cities, 9/11. Despite their often dire circumstances, Harleman's characters manage to find moments of light and grace.

"Thoreau's Laundry is brainy, funny, soulful and original. Ann Harleman is that rare writer whose playfulness with words is as skillful as her ardent portrayal of human experience."--Meg Wolitzer

"A tapestry of beautifully written stories, gripping, deeply affecting and completely entertaining. Each story shimmers with the richness of Harleman's insightful prose."--Mary McGarry Morris

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