Penguin Random House Secondary Education
Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads

Secondary Education Inspire Teaching and Learning with Outstanding Books


Guides

Collections

News
(0)
Wish List
(0)
Wish List
prh logo
  • Secondary Education

    Inspire Teaching and Learning with Outstanding Books

    • English Language Arts
        • English Language Arts
        • Genre: Fiction
        • Genre: Nonfiction
        • Genre: Drama
        • Genre: Poetry
        • Genre: Literary Criticism
        •  
        • Literature: American
        • Literature: British & Commonwealth
        • Literature: Comparative & World
        •  
        • Communication
        • Writing & Composition
        • ESL / ELL

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Social Studies & History
        • Social Studies
        • Anthropology
        • Civics & Government
        • Economics, Business, and Finance
        • Geography
        • Philosophy & Ethics
        • Psychology
        • Sociology
        • History
        • European History
        • Historiography
        • Topical History
        • United States History
        • Wars, Conflicts, and Events
        • World History

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • STEAM / STEM
        • Science
        • Applied Sciences
        • Astronomy
        • Biology & Life Sciences
        • Earth Science
        • Engineering
        • Environmental Science & Issues
        • Essays
        • Experiments, Projects, and Makerspace
        • History of Science
        • Physical Science
        • References
        • Research & Methodology
        • Scientists, Inventors, & Discoveries
        • The Arts
        • Architecture
        • Art
        • Fashion
        • Media Studies
        • Music
        • Performing Arts
        • Math
        • Algebra
        • Arithmetic
        • Calculus
        • Geometry
        • Precalculus
        • Probability & Statistics
        • Quantitative Reasoning
        • More Math…
        • Computer & IT
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Coding & Programming
        • Computer Education
        • Computer Science Principles
        • Cyber Security
        • Design & User Experience (UX)
        • Entertainment & Games
        • Ethics
        • History of IT
        • Internet / The Web
        • Networking
        • Operating Systems
        • Software Manuals
        • More Computers & IT…

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Books in Spanish & World Languages
        • Books in Spanish & World Languages
        • Books in Spanish
        • World Languages

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Study Aids & Exam Prep
        • Study Aids & Exam Prep
        • College Entrance Exams
        • High School Exams

        • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • More Disciplines
        • Health, Sports, Games, and Crafts
        • Cooking & Nutrition
        • Crafts & Makerspace
        • Games & Activities
        • Health & Wellness
        • Physical Education
        • Religious Studies & Spirituality
        • Agnostic & Atheist
        • Buddhism
        • Christianity
        • Comparative Religion
        • Confucianism
        • Hindu
        • Islam
        • Judaism
        • Notable People in Religious Studies & Spirituality
        • Taoism
        • Visionary & Metaphysical
        • Education & Professional Learning
        • Child and Adolescent Development
        • Classroom Management
        • Counseling
        • Pedagogy & Methodology
        • Schools and Education
        • Special Education
        • References
        • Almanacs
        • Atlases, Gazetteers, and Maps
        • Bibliographies & Indexes
        • Dictionaries
        • Encyclopedias
        • Research Materials
        • Style Manuals
        • Thesauruses
        • Word Lists
        • Writing Skills

          • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Guides
    • Collections
    • News
    • Other Penguin Random House Education Sites
    • Elementary Ed
    • Higher Ed
stopwatch icon
Are you still there?
If not, we’ll close this session in:
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Sorry Please Thank You

Stories

Part of Vintage Contemporaries

Author Charles Yu
Look inside
Paperback
$16.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.17"W x 7.96"H x 0.65"D  
On sale May 07, 2013 | 240 Pages | 978-0-307-94846-5
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Humor & Satire > Absurdist
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Science & Speculative Fiction > Humorous
  • English Language Arts > Genre: Fiction > Short Stories > Single Author Collections
share via email
share via facebook
share via twitter
share via email
share via facebook
share via twitter
  • About
  • Author
  • Excerpt
  • Praise
The author of the widely praised debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe returns with a hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly original collection of short stories.

A big-box store employee is confronted by a zombie during the graveyard shift, a problem that pales in comparison to his inability to ask a coworker out on a date . . . A fighter leads his band of virtual warriors, thieves, and wizards across a deadly computer-generated landscape, but does he have what it takes to be a hero? . . . A company outsources grief for profit, its slogan: “Don’t feel like having a bad day? Let someone else have it for you.”

Drawing from both pop culture and science, Charles Yu is a brilliant observer of contemporary society, and in Sorry Please Thank You he fills his stories with equal parts laugh-out-loud humor and piercing insight into the human condition. He has already garnered comparisons to such masters as Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, and in this new collection we have resounding proof that he has arrived (via a wormhole in space-time) as a major new voice in American fiction.

“What Charles Yu does very well–it is a long list, but this may be its most notable entry–is to create strange and disturbingly normal alternate realities. In his first novel, How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe, Yu conceived of Minor Universe 31, a universe filled with people widely, albeit unhappily, using time machines. He took sci-fi theories and ran them through a sort of literary normalizer, applying ample wit, pop-culture references, psychological insight, metaphorical flair, and a vital sweetness (his young, isolated protagonist, in search of his father, even has a stray dog for a pet). Overflowing with quasi-scientific jargon, the novel was exciting and funny and, at times, downright spooky, much like the quantum theories that Yu invoked. But most of all, for a story about a time travel mechanic, it was unfailingly realistic. . . . In his new collection of stories, Sorry Please Thank You, Yu no longer constrains himself to the pre-requisites of realism–or, to be more accurate, the appearance of realism. Freed from this yoke, he takes off in every narrative direction with the glee of a school-kid released for summer vacation. . . . While Yu has drawn many comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut for his entertaining and adept satire, and to Douglas Adams for his intelligent and inventive silliness, Donald Barthelme seems an overlooked literary forebear. . . . As readers, we are all the better for Yu’s astonishing mix of wild imagination and meticulous restraint. Of the three polite phrases that comprise his title–Sorry Please Thank You–only the last is of true relevance here. No sorries, Charles. Just thanks.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“There's some of the cerebral gamesmanship of Jonathan Lethem, the resigned sadness of Kurt Vonnegut, the Phil Dickian paranoiac distrust of consumer culture. But Yu's voice, sensibility and approach are unique, especially in the ways he wrings humor and pathos out of stripped-down syntax and seemingly passive protagonists. . . . The stories deliver more than their fair share of bitter laughs, philosophical conundrums and existential gut punches.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A mix of science fiction, absurdist humor and Beckettian monologue, with storytelling techniques that twist narrative into a computer-esque objectivism; think Donald Barthleme's strangest pyrotechnics in a Philip K. Dick or Haruki Murakami world. . . . [Charles Yu is ] the computer century's heir to Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.” —Shelf Awareness

“Yu’s workman-like sentences are unexpectedly emotive, while also being almost always very funny. . . . As with his critically acclaimed, much-adored 2010 debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Yu’s new baker’s dozen of satiric stories tell of a future that’s really just an exaggerated present . . . Like the best science fiction writers, Yu provides seemingly gratuitous logistical information to mitigate any hint of farce. . . . Yu is a master of the slow reveal. It sometimes takes pages to understand where we are and why, but as the chatty protagonists joke and confess their deepest pains, details accrue and outlines fill in. And when we are finally oriented, the universe he has created feels eerily complete. . . . Imaginary lands become possible worlds; cunning tricks grow into game theory; playing pretend morphs into explorations of false consciousness. Each story in Sorry Please Thank You is staggeringly smart, and none feel like anything but entertainment. Cultish fans of the NBC comedy “Community,’’ this book is for you.” —The Boston Globe

“Lovely and heartfelt. . . . A brilliantly manic ride. . . . Yu has an undeniable gift for describing, in clean, economical prose, the mechanics of things that don't exist or are impossible." —The Wall Street Journal

“Stand back. The lead story in Sorry Please Thank You, this spritely new collection by L.A. writer Charles Yu, has the title ‘Standard Loneliness Package’ and it announces that a sly, nimble fantasist with a speculative edge is at work here. [An] adroit piece of work. . . . Experiment plus emotion, we don’t often find these two elements together, but when it happens, as it does in most of these stories . . . it makes for terrific reading for the heart as well as the head.” —Alan Cheuse for NPR’s All Things Considered
 
“Charles Yu won us over with his weird, melancholy novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and now he's back. . . . [These] stories are psychological studies of neurotic nerds, struggling to stay alive as they fight liches and loneliness. They're beautiful, strange, and funny.” —io9
 
“Yu’s bold, playful voice evokes a computer-era Donald Barthelme, but his stylistic journey into the vast universe that is the human mind is refreshingly distinctive.” —Booklist

“Laugh-out-loud moments of strangeness artfully exist in a contemporary fictional structure. . . . With this collection, steeped in originality, we get echoes of David Foster Wallace’s early collection, Girl with the Curious Hair. Like Wallace, Yu abandons the more self-serving, insular metafiction of the past 40 years for a fresher form. Using technology, pop culture, etc., he attempts to write fiction that can be best shared with readers, not just critics or scholars. Yu, in fact, marries science and literature. . . . Characteristic of his work, Yu mixes the beauty of human emotion with the science fiction to invent highly original, highly entertaining scenes and stories. He poses questions of reality and existence. You first think you’re chuckling to yourself. Then, without warning, you‘ve got that ‘reaching final altitude’ feeling in your stomach–a sudden change. . . . Yu examines what it means to exist now and, in his own way, what it will mean in the future. It’s almost as if these stories, through their science fiction and futuristic themes twinned with a humorous yet moving style, strive to reinvent what we know as metafiction. . . . Yu follows Vonnegut and Wallace in this style of metafictional, literary pilgrimage”
—Paste Magazine

 “Grade A- . . . Pick it up and kiss your weekend good-bye. . . . The best comparisons, though it feels a little hyperbolic to say, might be made with Vonnegut’s more pessimistic novels, books like Cat’s Cradle, Deadeye Dick, and Timequake. With Sorry Please Thank You, Yu has achieved something rare: an aggressively imagined work of fiction in which the concepts (mostly) serve the characters.” —Boston Phoenix

“Charles Yu's outstanding collection Sorry Please Thank You collects short fiction by the author who gave us the terrific How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Yu's blend of literary fiction's style with sci-fi's wild ideas is beautifully realized here, especially in the moving gem "Standard Loneliness Package." One of the year's best collections in any genre.” —The Austin American-Statesman

“Enchanting. . . . Yu’s ability to assume widely diverging roles as a storyteller is dazzling. . . . Those not bothered by diverse writing styles will find reading Yu to be an exciting adventure.” —Library Journal 
 
“Like his debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu's new collection of stories mixes humor and clever conceits with a perfect deadpan delivery. . . . Sharp, crisp insights that will have you chuckling and shaking your head.” —Los Angeles Times
 
“The author behind three of the most unusual books of fiction published in the past five years. . . . Untraditional but weirdly glorious narratives that, for all their experimental form, end up carrying as much or even more emotional force as your original, more conventional vessel would have.” —Poets and Writers
 
“In his new collection, Charles Yu applies his trademark winking, pop-culture-infused, sci-fi mentality to a series of short stories. . . . Clever and cutting.” —Flavorwire
 
“Whether Yu’s work is dark, thought provoking, humorous, or all of the above, it’s always compulsively readable.” —Owl and Bear

“Looking for the next great voice in fiction? Young author Charles Yu’s short stories beg comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, but he’s funnier than both.” —Men’s Health
 
“Impressive. . . . Charts eclectic territory, from a zombie in a megamart to a new pharmaceutical drug that generates a sense of purpose, and explores retreats from reality and emotion . . . [Am] amusing send up American consumer culture.” —Publishers Weekly
© Tina Chiou

CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents.

View titles by Charles Yu

Standard Loneliness Package
 
 
Root canal is one fifty, give or take, depending on who’s doing it to you. A migraine is two hundred.
 
Not that I get the money. The company gets it. What I get is twelve dollars an hour, plus reimbursement for painkillers. Not that they work.
 
I feel pain for money. Other people’s pain. Physical, emotional, you name it.
 
Pain is an illusion, I know, and so is time, I know, I know. I know. The shift manager never stops reminding us. Doesn’t help, actually. Doesn’t help when you are on your third broken leg of the day.
 
***
 
I get to work three minutes late and already there are nine tickets in my inbox. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, open the first ticket of the morning:
 
I’m at a funeral.
 
Feeling grief.
 
Someone else’s grief. Like wearing a stranger’s coat, still warm with heat from another body.
 
I’m feeling a mixture of things.
 
Grief, mostly, but also I detect some guilt in there. There usually is.
 
I hear crying.
 
I am seeing crying faces. Pretty faces. Crying, pretty, white faces. Nice clothes.
 
Our services aren’t cheap. As the shift manager is always reminding us. Need I remind you? That is his favorite phrase these days. He is always walking up and down the aisle tilting his head into our cubicles and saying it. Need I remind you, he says, of where we are on the spectrum? In terms of low-end high-end? We are solidly toward the highish end. So the faces are usually pretty, the clothes are usually nice. The people are usually nice, too. Although I imagine it’s not such a big deal to be nice when you’re that rich and that pretty.
 
There’s a place in Hyderabad doing what we’re doing, but a little more toward the budget end of things. Precision Living Solutions, it’s called. And of course there are hundreds of emotional engineering firms here in Bangalore, springing up everywhere you look. The other day I read in the paper that a new call center opens once every three weeks. Workers follow the work, and the work is here. All of us ready to feel, to suffer. We’re in a growth industry.
 
Okay. The body is going into the ground now. The crying is getting more serious.
 
Here it comes.
 
I am feeling that feeling. The one that these people get a lot, near the end of a funeral service. These sad and pretty people. It’s a big feeling. Different operators have different ways to describe it. For me, it feels something like a huge boot. Huge, like it fills up the whole sky, the whole galaxy, all of space. Some kind of infinite foot. And it’s stepping on me. The infinite foot is stepping on my chest.
 
The funeral ends, and the foot is still on me, and it is hard to breathe. People are getting into black town cars. I also appear to have a town car. I get in. The foot, the foot. So heavy. Here we go, yes, this is familiar, the foot, yes, the foot. It doesn’t hurt, exactly. It’s not what I would call comfortable, but it’s not pain, either. More like pressure. Deepak, who used to be in the next cubicle, once told me that this feeling I call the infinite foot—to him it felt more like a knee—is actually the American experience of the Christian God.
 
“Are you sure it is the Christian God?” I asked him. “I always thought God was Jewish.”
 
“You’re an idiot,” he said. “It’s the same guy. Duh. The Judeo-Christian God.”
 
“Are you sure?” I said. He just shook his head at me. We’d had this conversation before. I figured he was probably right, but I didn’t want to admit it. Deepak was the smartest guy in our cube-cluster, as he would kindly remind me several times a day.
 
I endure a few more minutes of the foot, and then, right before the hour is up, right when the grief and guilt are almost too much and I wonder if I am going to have to hit the safety button, there it is, it’s usually there at the end of a funeral, no matter how awful, no matter how hard I am crying, no matter how much guilt my client has saved up for me to feel. You wouldn’t expect it—I didn’t—but anyone who has done this job for long enough knows what I’m talking about, and even though you know it’s coming, even though you are, in fact, waiting for it, when it comes, it is always still a little bit of a shock.
 
Relief.
 
***
 
Death of a cousin is five hundred. Death of a sibling is twelve fifty. Parents are two thousand apiece, but depending on the situation people will pay all kinds of money, for all kinds of reasons, for bad reasons, for no reason at all.
 
The company started off in run-of-the-mill corporate services, basic stuff: ethical qualm transference, plausible deniability. The sort of things that generated good cash flow, cash flow that was fed right back into R&D, year after year, turning the little shop into a bit player, and then a not-so-bit player, and then, eventually, into a leader in a specialized market. In those early days, this place was known as Conscience Incorporated. The company had cornered the early market in guilt.
 
Then the technology improved. Some genius in Delhi had figured out a transfer protocol to standardize and packetize all different kinds of experiences. Overnight, everything changed. An industry was born. The business of bad feeling. For the right price, almost any part of life could be avoided.
 
 ***
 
Across the street from work is a lunch place I go to sometimes. Not much, really, a hot and crowded little room, a bunch of stools in front of a greasy counter. I come here mostly for the small television, up on a shelf, above the cash register. They have a satellite feed.
 
Today they have it switched to American television, and I am watching a commercial for our company’s services.
 
It shows a rich executive-looking type sitting and rubbing his temples, making the universal television face for I Am an Executive in a Highly Stressful Situation. There are wavy lines on either side of his temples to indicate that the Executive is really stressed! Then he places a call to his broker and in the next scene, the Executive is lying on a beach, drinking golden beer from a bottle and looking at the bluest ocean I have ever seen.
 
Next to me is a woman and her daughter. The girl, maybe four or five, is scooping rice and peas into her mouth a little at a time. She is watching the commercial in silence. When she sees the blue water, she turns to her mother and asks her, softly, what the blue liquid is. I am thinking about how sad it is that she has never seen water that color in real life until I realize that I am thirty-nine years old and hey, you know what? Neither have I.
 
And then the commercial ends with one of our slogans.
 
Don’t feel like having a bad day?
Let someone else have it for you.
 
***
 
That someone else they are talking about in the commercial is me. And the other six hundred terminal operators in Building D, Cubicle Block 4. Don’t feel like having a bad day? Let me have it for you.
 
It’s okay for me. It’s a good job. I didn’t do that well in school, after all. It was tougher for Deep. He did three semesters at technical college. He was always saying he deserved better. Better than this, anyway. I would nod and agree with him, but I never told him what I wanted to tell him, which was, hey, Deepak, when you say that you deserve better, even if I agree with you, you are kind of also implying that I don’t deserve better, which, maybe I don’t, maybe this is about where I belong in the grand scheme of things, in terms of high-end low-end for me as a person, but I wish you wouldn’t say it because whenever you do, it makes me feel a sharp bit of sadness and then, for the rest of the day, a kind of low-grade crumminess.
 
Whenever Deep and I used to go to lunch, he would try to explain to me how it works.
 
“Okay, so, the clients,” he would say, “they call in to their account reps and book the time.”
 
He liked to start sentences with okay, so. It was a habit he had picked up from the engineers. He thought it made him sound smarter, thought it made him sound like them, those code jockeys, standing by the coffee machine, talking faster than he could think, talking not so much in sentences as in data structures, dense clumps of logic with the occasional inside joke. He liked to stand near them, pretending to stir sugar into his coffee, listening in on them as if they were speaking a different language. A language of knowing something, a language of being an expert at something. A language of being something more than an hourly unit.
 
Okay, so, Deepak said, so this is how it works. The client, he books the time, and then at the appointed hour, a switch in the implant chip kicks on and starts transferring his consciousness over. Perceptions, sensory data, all of it. Then it goes first to an intermediate server for processing and then gets bundled with other jobs, and then a huge block of the stuff gets zapped over here, where it gets downloaded onto our servers and then dumped into our queue management system, which parcels out the individual jobs to all of us in the cubicle farm.
 
Okay, so, it’s all based on some kind of efficiency algorithm—our historical performance, our current emotional load. Sensors in our head assembly unit measure our stress levels, sweat composition, to see what we can handle. Okay? he would say, when he was done. Like a professor. He wanted so badly to be an expert at something.
 
I always appreciated Deepak trying to help me understand. But it’s just a job, I would say. I never really understood why Deep thought so much of those programmers, either. In the end, we’re all brains for hire. Mental space for rent, moments as a commodity. They have gotten it down to a science. How much a human being can take in a given twelve-hour shift. Grief, embarrassment, humiliation, all different, of course, so they calibrate our schedules, mix it up, the timing and the order, and the end result is you leave work every day right about at your exact breaking point. A lot of people smoke to take the edge off. I quit twelve years ago, so sometimes when I get home, I’m still shaking for a little bit. I sit on my couch and drink a beer and let it subside. Then I heat up some bread and lentils and read a newspaper or, if it’s too hot to stay inside, go down to the street and eat my dinner standing there, watching people walking down the block, wondering where they are headed, wondering if anyone is waiting for them to come home.
 
**The above is an excerpt from “Standard Loneliness Package,” the first story in the new collection SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU by Charles Yu.**

Copyright © 2012 by Charles Yu. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
“What Charles Yu does very well—it is a long list, but this may be its most notable entry—is to create strange and disturbingly normal alternate realities. In his first novel, How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe, Yu conceived of Minor Universe 31, a universe filled with people widely, albeit unhappily, using time machines. He took sci-fi theories and ran them through a sort of literary normalizer, applying ample wit, pop-culture references, psychological insight, metaphorical flair, and a vital sweetness (his young, isolated protagonist, in search of his father, even has a stray dog for a pet). Overflowing with quasi-scientific jargon, the novel was exciting and funny and, at times, downright spooky, much like the quantum theories that Yu invoked. But most of all, for a story about a time travel mechanic, it was unfailingly realistic. . . . In his new collection of stories, Sorry Please Thank You, Yu no longer constrains himself to the pre-requisites of realism—or, to be more accurate, the appearance of realism. Freed from this yoke, he takes off in every narrative direction with the glee of a school-kid released for summer vacation. . . . While Yu has drawn many comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut for his entertaining and adept satire, and to Douglas Adams for his intelligent and inventive silliness, Donald Barthelme seems an overlooked literary forebear. . . . As readers, we are all the better for Yu’s astonishing mix of wild imagination and meticulous restraint. Of the three polite phrases that comprise his title—Sorry Please Thank You—only the last is of true relevance here. No sorries, Charles. Just thanks.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“There's some of the cerebral gamesmanship of Jonathan Lethem, the resigned sadness of Kurt Vonnegut, the Phil Dickian paranoiac distrust of consumer culture. But Yu's voice, sensibility and approach are unique, especially in the ways he wrings humor and pathos out of stripped-down syntax and seemingly passive protagonists . . . The stories deliver more than their fair share of bitter laughs, philosophical conundrums and existential gut punches.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A mix of science fiction, absurdist humor and Beckettian monologue, with storytelling techniques that twist narrative into a computer-esque objectivism; think Donald Barthleme's strangest pyrotechnics in a Philip K. Dick or Haruki Murakami world . . . [Charles Yu is ] the computer century's heir to Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Yu’s workman-like sentences are unexpectedly emotive, while also being almost always very funny . . . As with his critically acclaimed, much-adored 2010 debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Yu’s new baker’s dozen of satiric stories tell of a future that’s really just an exaggerated present . . . Like the best science fiction writers, Yu provides seemingly gratuitous logistical information to mitigate any hint of farce . . . Yu is a master of the slow reveal. It sometimes takes pages to understand where we are and why, but as the chatty protagonists joke and confess their deepest pains, details accrue and outlines fill in. And when we are finally oriented, the universe he has created feels eerily complete . . . Imaginary lands become possible worlds; cunning tricks grow into game theory; playing pretend morphs into explorations of false consciousness. Each story in Sorry Please Thank You is staggeringly smart, and none feel like anything but entertainment. Cultish fans of the NBC comedy “Community,’’ this book is for you.”
—The Boston Globe

“I don't know that there's a better story-bending talent at work than Yu since the rise of George Saunders . . . If you take a longer view you can see that Yu's success has many parents, from the oft-quoted Stein, the tone of Hemingway and Beckett, Virginia Woolf's fanciful short creations (as in, say, the story "Kew Gardens"), Calvino's game-faced fantasies and the low-key but powerful satire of Kurt Vonnegut . . . a tour-de-force.”
—Alan Cheuse, NPR.org
 
“Lovely and heartfelt . . . A brilliantly manic ride . . . Yu has an undeniable gift for describing, in clean, economical prose, the mechanics of things that don't exist or are impossible."
—The Wall Street Journal

“Stand back. The lead story in Sorry Please Thank You, this spritely new collection by L.A. writer Charles Yu, has the title ‘Standard Loneliness Package’ and it announces that a sly, nimble fantasist with a speculative edge is at work here. [An] adroit piece of work . . . Experiment plus emotion, we don’t often find these two elements together, but when it happens, as it does in most of these stories . . . it makes for terrific reading for the heart as well as the head.”
—Alan Cheuse for NPR’s All Things Considered
 
“Charles Yu won us over with his weird, melancholy novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and now he's back . . . [These] stories are psychological studies of neurotic nerds, struggling to stay alive as they fight liches and loneliness. They're beautiful, strange, and funny.”
—io9
 
“Yu’s bold, playful voice evokes a computer-era Donald Barthelme, but his stylistic journey into the vast universe that is the human mind is refreshingly distinctive.”
—Booklist

“Laugh-out-loud moments of strangeness artfully exist in a contemporary fictional structure . . . With this collection, steeped in originality, we get echoes of David Foster Wallace’s early collection, Girl with the Curious Hair. Like Wallace, Yu abandons the more self-serving, insular metafiction of the past 40 years for a fresher form. Using technology, pop culture, etc., he attempts to write fiction that can be best shared with readers, not just critics or scholars. Yu, in fact, marries science and literature . . . Characteristic of his work, Yu mixes the beauty of human emotion with the science fiction to invent highly original, highly entertaining scenes and stories. He poses questions of reality and existence. You first think you’re chuckling to yourself. Then, without warning, you‘ve got that ‘reaching final altitude’ feeling in your stomach—a sudden change . . . Yu examines what it means to exist now and, in his own way, what it will mean in the future. It’s almost as if these stories, through their science fiction and futuristic themes twinned with a humorous yet moving style, strive to reinvent what we know as metafiction . . . Yu follows Vonnegut and Wallace in this style of metafictional, literary pilgrimage”
—Paste Magazine

 “Grade A- . . . Pick it up and kiss your weekend good-bye . . . The best comparisons, though it feels a little hyperbolic to say, might be made with Vonnegut’s more pessimistic novels, books like Cat’s Cradle, Deadeye Dick, and Timequake. With Sorry Please Thank You, Yu has achieved something rare: an aggressively imagined work of fiction in which the concepts (mostly) serve the characters.”
—Boston Phoenix

“Charles Yu's outstanding collection Sorry Please Thank You collects short fiction by the author who gave us the terrific How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Yu's blend of literary fiction's style with sci-fi's wild ideas is beautifully realized here, especially in the moving gem "Standard Loneliness Package." One of the year's best collections in any genre.”
—The Austin American-Statesman

“Enchanting . . . Yu’s ability to assume widely diverging roles as a storyteller is dazzling . . . Those not bothered by diverse writing styles will find reading Yu to be an exciting adventure.”
—Library Journal 
 
“Like his debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu's new collection of stories mixes humor and clever conceits with a perfect deadpan delivery . . . Sharp, crisp insights that will have you chuckling and shaking your head.”
—Los Angeles Times
 
“The author behind three of the most unusual books of fiction published in the past five years . . . Untraditional but weirdly glorious narratives that, for all their experimental form, end up carrying as much or even more emotional force as your original, more conventional vessel would have.”
—Poets and Writers
 
“In his new collection, Charles Yu applies his trademark winking, pop-culture-infused, sci-fi mentality to a series of short stories . . . Clever and cutting.”
—Flavorwire
 
“Whether Yu’s work is dark, thought provoking, humorous, or all of the above, it’s always compulsively readable.”
—Owl and Bear

“Looking for the next great voice in fiction? Young author Charles Yu’s short stories beg comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, but he’s funnier than both.”
—Men’s Health
 
“Entertaining . . . Like a friend who stops by unexpectedly with a bunch of mind-bending tales to share . . . had me laughing . . . go order a copy.”
—Geekdad, Wired Magazine
 
“Impressive . . . Charts eclectic territory, from a zombie in a megamart to a new pharmaceutical drug that generates a sense of purpose, and explores retreats from reality and emotion . . . [Am] amusing send up American consumer culture.”
—Publishers Weekly
share via email
share via facebook
share via twitter

About

The author of the widely praised debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe returns with a hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly original collection of short stories.

A big-box store employee is confronted by a zombie during the graveyard shift, a problem that pales in comparison to his inability to ask a coworker out on a date . . . A fighter leads his band of virtual warriors, thieves, and wizards across a deadly computer-generated landscape, but does he have what it takes to be a hero? . . . A company outsources grief for profit, its slogan: “Don’t feel like having a bad day? Let someone else have it for you.”

Drawing from both pop culture and science, Charles Yu is a brilliant observer of contemporary society, and in Sorry Please Thank You he fills his stories with equal parts laugh-out-loud humor and piercing insight into the human condition. He has already garnered comparisons to such masters as Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, and in this new collection we have resounding proof that he has arrived (via a wormhole in space-time) as a major new voice in American fiction.

“What Charles Yu does very well–it is a long list, but this may be its most notable entry–is to create strange and disturbingly normal alternate realities. In his first novel, How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe, Yu conceived of Minor Universe 31, a universe filled with people widely, albeit unhappily, using time machines. He took sci-fi theories and ran them through a sort of literary normalizer, applying ample wit, pop-culture references, psychological insight, metaphorical flair, and a vital sweetness (his young, isolated protagonist, in search of his father, even has a stray dog for a pet). Overflowing with quasi-scientific jargon, the novel was exciting and funny and, at times, downright spooky, much like the quantum theories that Yu invoked. But most of all, for a story about a time travel mechanic, it was unfailingly realistic. . . . In his new collection of stories, Sorry Please Thank You, Yu no longer constrains himself to the pre-requisites of realism–or, to be more accurate, the appearance of realism. Freed from this yoke, he takes off in every narrative direction with the glee of a school-kid released for summer vacation. . . . While Yu has drawn many comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut for his entertaining and adept satire, and to Douglas Adams for his intelligent and inventive silliness, Donald Barthelme seems an overlooked literary forebear. . . . As readers, we are all the better for Yu’s astonishing mix of wild imagination and meticulous restraint. Of the three polite phrases that comprise his title–Sorry Please Thank You–only the last is of true relevance here. No sorries, Charles. Just thanks.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“There's some of the cerebral gamesmanship of Jonathan Lethem, the resigned sadness of Kurt Vonnegut, the Phil Dickian paranoiac distrust of consumer culture. But Yu's voice, sensibility and approach are unique, especially in the ways he wrings humor and pathos out of stripped-down syntax and seemingly passive protagonists. . . . The stories deliver more than their fair share of bitter laughs, philosophical conundrums and existential gut punches.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A mix of science fiction, absurdist humor and Beckettian monologue, with storytelling techniques that twist narrative into a computer-esque objectivism; think Donald Barthleme's strangest pyrotechnics in a Philip K. Dick or Haruki Murakami world. . . . [Charles Yu is ] the computer century's heir to Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.” —Shelf Awareness

“Yu’s workman-like sentences are unexpectedly emotive, while also being almost always very funny. . . . As with his critically acclaimed, much-adored 2010 debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Yu’s new baker’s dozen of satiric stories tell of a future that’s really just an exaggerated present . . . Like the best science fiction writers, Yu provides seemingly gratuitous logistical information to mitigate any hint of farce. . . . Yu is a master of the slow reveal. It sometimes takes pages to understand where we are and why, but as the chatty protagonists joke and confess their deepest pains, details accrue and outlines fill in. And when we are finally oriented, the universe he has created feels eerily complete. . . . Imaginary lands become possible worlds; cunning tricks grow into game theory; playing pretend morphs into explorations of false consciousness. Each story in Sorry Please Thank You is staggeringly smart, and none feel like anything but entertainment. Cultish fans of the NBC comedy “Community,’’ this book is for you.” —The Boston Globe

“Lovely and heartfelt. . . . A brilliantly manic ride. . . . Yu has an undeniable gift for describing, in clean, economical prose, the mechanics of things that don't exist or are impossible." —The Wall Street Journal

“Stand back. The lead story in Sorry Please Thank You, this spritely new collection by L.A. writer Charles Yu, has the title ‘Standard Loneliness Package’ and it announces that a sly, nimble fantasist with a speculative edge is at work here. [An] adroit piece of work. . . . Experiment plus emotion, we don’t often find these two elements together, but when it happens, as it does in most of these stories . . . it makes for terrific reading for the heart as well as the head.” —Alan Cheuse for NPR’s All Things Considered
 
“Charles Yu won us over with his weird, melancholy novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and now he's back. . . . [These] stories are psychological studies of neurotic nerds, struggling to stay alive as they fight liches and loneliness. They're beautiful, strange, and funny.” —io9
 
“Yu’s bold, playful voice evokes a computer-era Donald Barthelme, but his stylistic journey into the vast universe that is the human mind is refreshingly distinctive.” —Booklist

“Laugh-out-loud moments of strangeness artfully exist in a contemporary fictional structure. . . . With this collection, steeped in originality, we get echoes of David Foster Wallace’s early collection, Girl with the Curious Hair. Like Wallace, Yu abandons the more self-serving, insular metafiction of the past 40 years for a fresher form. Using technology, pop culture, etc., he attempts to write fiction that can be best shared with readers, not just critics or scholars. Yu, in fact, marries science and literature. . . . Characteristic of his work, Yu mixes the beauty of human emotion with the science fiction to invent highly original, highly entertaining scenes and stories. He poses questions of reality and existence. You first think you’re chuckling to yourself. Then, without warning, you‘ve got that ‘reaching final altitude’ feeling in your stomach–a sudden change. . . . Yu examines what it means to exist now and, in his own way, what it will mean in the future. It’s almost as if these stories, through their science fiction and futuristic themes twinned with a humorous yet moving style, strive to reinvent what we know as metafiction. . . . Yu follows Vonnegut and Wallace in this style of metafictional, literary pilgrimage”
—Paste Magazine

 “Grade A- . . . Pick it up and kiss your weekend good-bye. . . . The best comparisons, though it feels a little hyperbolic to say, might be made with Vonnegut’s more pessimistic novels, books like Cat’s Cradle, Deadeye Dick, and Timequake. With Sorry Please Thank You, Yu has achieved something rare: an aggressively imagined work of fiction in which the concepts (mostly) serve the characters.” —Boston Phoenix

“Charles Yu's outstanding collection Sorry Please Thank You collects short fiction by the author who gave us the terrific How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Yu's blend of literary fiction's style with sci-fi's wild ideas is beautifully realized here, especially in the moving gem "Standard Loneliness Package." One of the year's best collections in any genre.” —The Austin American-Statesman

“Enchanting. . . . Yu’s ability to assume widely diverging roles as a storyteller is dazzling. . . . Those not bothered by diverse writing styles will find reading Yu to be an exciting adventure.” —Library Journal 
 
“Like his debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu's new collection of stories mixes humor and clever conceits with a perfect deadpan delivery. . . . Sharp, crisp insights that will have you chuckling and shaking your head.” —Los Angeles Times
 
“The author behind three of the most unusual books of fiction published in the past five years. . . . Untraditional but weirdly glorious narratives that, for all their experimental form, end up carrying as much or even more emotional force as your original, more conventional vessel would have.” —Poets and Writers
 
“In his new collection, Charles Yu applies his trademark winking, pop-culture-infused, sci-fi mentality to a series of short stories. . . . Clever and cutting.” —Flavorwire
 
“Whether Yu’s work is dark, thought provoking, humorous, or all of the above, it’s always compulsively readable.” —Owl and Bear

“Looking for the next great voice in fiction? Young author Charles Yu’s short stories beg comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, but he’s funnier than both.” —Men’s Health
 
“Impressive. . . . Charts eclectic territory, from a zombie in a megamart to a new pharmaceutical drug that generates a sense of purpose, and explores retreats from reality and emotion . . . [Am] amusing send up American consumer culture.” —Publishers Weekly

Author

© Tina Chiou

CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents.

View titles by Charles Yu

Excerpt

Standard Loneliness Package
 
 
Root canal is one fifty, give or take, depending on who’s doing it to you. A migraine is two hundred.
 
Not that I get the money. The company gets it. What I get is twelve dollars an hour, plus reimbursement for painkillers. Not that they work.
 
I feel pain for money. Other people’s pain. Physical, emotional, you name it.
 
Pain is an illusion, I know, and so is time, I know, I know. I know. The shift manager never stops reminding us. Doesn’t help, actually. Doesn’t help when you are on your third broken leg of the day.
 
***
 
I get to work three minutes late and already there are nine tickets in my inbox. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, open the first ticket of the morning:
 
I’m at a funeral.
 
Feeling grief.
 
Someone else’s grief. Like wearing a stranger’s coat, still warm with heat from another body.
 
I’m feeling a mixture of things.
 
Grief, mostly, but also I detect some guilt in there. There usually is.
 
I hear crying.
 
I am seeing crying faces. Pretty faces. Crying, pretty, white faces. Nice clothes.
 
Our services aren’t cheap. As the shift manager is always reminding us. Need I remind you? That is his favorite phrase these days. He is always walking up and down the aisle tilting his head into our cubicles and saying it. Need I remind you, he says, of where we are on the spectrum? In terms of low-end high-end? We are solidly toward the highish end. So the faces are usually pretty, the clothes are usually nice. The people are usually nice, too. Although I imagine it’s not such a big deal to be nice when you’re that rich and that pretty.
 
There’s a place in Hyderabad doing what we’re doing, but a little more toward the budget end of things. Precision Living Solutions, it’s called. And of course there are hundreds of emotional engineering firms here in Bangalore, springing up everywhere you look. The other day I read in the paper that a new call center opens once every three weeks. Workers follow the work, and the work is here. All of us ready to feel, to suffer. We’re in a growth industry.
 
Okay. The body is going into the ground now. The crying is getting more serious.
 
Here it comes.
 
I am feeling that feeling. The one that these people get a lot, near the end of a funeral service. These sad and pretty people. It’s a big feeling. Different operators have different ways to describe it. For me, it feels something like a huge boot. Huge, like it fills up the whole sky, the whole galaxy, all of space. Some kind of infinite foot. And it’s stepping on me. The infinite foot is stepping on my chest.
 
The funeral ends, and the foot is still on me, and it is hard to breathe. People are getting into black town cars. I also appear to have a town car. I get in. The foot, the foot. So heavy. Here we go, yes, this is familiar, the foot, yes, the foot. It doesn’t hurt, exactly. It’s not what I would call comfortable, but it’s not pain, either. More like pressure. Deepak, who used to be in the next cubicle, once told me that this feeling I call the infinite foot—to him it felt more like a knee—is actually the American experience of the Christian God.
 
“Are you sure it is the Christian God?” I asked him. “I always thought God was Jewish.”
 
“You’re an idiot,” he said. “It’s the same guy. Duh. The Judeo-Christian God.”
 
“Are you sure?” I said. He just shook his head at me. We’d had this conversation before. I figured he was probably right, but I didn’t want to admit it. Deepak was the smartest guy in our cube-cluster, as he would kindly remind me several times a day.
 
I endure a few more minutes of the foot, and then, right before the hour is up, right when the grief and guilt are almost too much and I wonder if I am going to have to hit the safety button, there it is, it’s usually there at the end of a funeral, no matter how awful, no matter how hard I am crying, no matter how much guilt my client has saved up for me to feel. You wouldn’t expect it—I didn’t—but anyone who has done this job for long enough knows what I’m talking about, and even though you know it’s coming, even though you are, in fact, waiting for it, when it comes, it is always still a little bit of a shock.
 
Relief.
 
***
 
Death of a cousin is five hundred. Death of a sibling is twelve fifty. Parents are two thousand apiece, but depending on the situation people will pay all kinds of money, for all kinds of reasons, for bad reasons, for no reason at all.
 
The company started off in run-of-the-mill corporate services, basic stuff: ethical qualm transference, plausible deniability. The sort of things that generated good cash flow, cash flow that was fed right back into R&D, year after year, turning the little shop into a bit player, and then a not-so-bit player, and then, eventually, into a leader in a specialized market. In those early days, this place was known as Conscience Incorporated. The company had cornered the early market in guilt.
 
Then the technology improved. Some genius in Delhi had figured out a transfer protocol to standardize and packetize all different kinds of experiences. Overnight, everything changed. An industry was born. The business of bad feeling. For the right price, almost any part of life could be avoided.
 
 ***
 
Across the street from work is a lunch place I go to sometimes. Not much, really, a hot and crowded little room, a bunch of stools in front of a greasy counter. I come here mostly for the small television, up on a shelf, above the cash register. They have a satellite feed.
 
Today they have it switched to American television, and I am watching a commercial for our company’s services.
 
It shows a rich executive-looking type sitting and rubbing his temples, making the universal television face for I Am an Executive in a Highly Stressful Situation. There are wavy lines on either side of his temples to indicate that the Executive is really stressed! Then he places a call to his broker and in the next scene, the Executive is lying on a beach, drinking golden beer from a bottle and looking at the bluest ocean I have ever seen.
 
Next to me is a woman and her daughter. The girl, maybe four or five, is scooping rice and peas into her mouth a little at a time. She is watching the commercial in silence. When she sees the blue water, she turns to her mother and asks her, softly, what the blue liquid is. I am thinking about how sad it is that she has never seen water that color in real life until I realize that I am thirty-nine years old and hey, you know what? Neither have I.
 
And then the commercial ends with one of our slogans.
 
Don’t feel like having a bad day?
Let someone else have it for you.
 
***
 
That someone else they are talking about in the commercial is me. And the other six hundred terminal operators in Building D, Cubicle Block 4. Don’t feel like having a bad day? Let me have it for you.
 
It’s okay for me. It’s a good job. I didn’t do that well in school, after all. It was tougher for Deep. He did three semesters at technical college. He was always saying he deserved better. Better than this, anyway. I would nod and agree with him, but I never told him what I wanted to tell him, which was, hey, Deepak, when you say that you deserve better, even if I agree with you, you are kind of also implying that I don’t deserve better, which, maybe I don’t, maybe this is about where I belong in the grand scheme of things, in terms of high-end low-end for me as a person, but I wish you wouldn’t say it because whenever you do, it makes me feel a sharp bit of sadness and then, for the rest of the day, a kind of low-grade crumminess.
 
Whenever Deep and I used to go to lunch, he would try to explain to me how it works.
 
“Okay, so, the clients,” he would say, “they call in to their account reps and book the time.”
 
He liked to start sentences with okay, so. It was a habit he had picked up from the engineers. He thought it made him sound smarter, thought it made him sound like them, those code jockeys, standing by the coffee machine, talking faster than he could think, talking not so much in sentences as in data structures, dense clumps of logic with the occasional inside joke. He liked to stand near them, pretending to stir sugar into his coffee, listening in on them as if they were speaking a different language. A language of knowing something, a language of being an expert at something. A language of being something more than an hourly unit.
 
Okay, so, Deepak said, so this is how it works. The client, he books the time, and then at the appointed hour, a switch in the implant chip kicks on and starts transferring his consciousness over. Perceptions, sensory data, all of it. Then it goes first to an intermediate server for processing and then gets bundled with other jobs, and then a huge block of the stuff gets zapped over here, where it gets downloaded onto our servers and then dumped into our queue management system, which parcels out the individual jobs to all of us in the cubicle farm.
 
Okay, so, it’s all based on some kind of efficiency algorithm—our historical performance, our current emotional load. Sensors in our head assembly unit measure our stress levels, sweat composition, to see what we can handle. Okay? he would say, when he was done. Like a professor. He wanted so badly to be an expert at something.
 
I always appreciated Deepak trying to help me understand. But it’s just a job, I would say. I never really understood why Deep thought so much of those programmers, either. In the end, we’re all brains for hire. Mental space for rent, moments as a commodity. They have gotten it down to a science. How much a human being can take in a given twelve-hour shift. Grief, embarrassment, humiliation, all different, of course, so they calibrate our schedules, mix it up, the timing and the order, and the end result is you leave work every day right about at your exact breaking point. A lot of people smoke to take the edge off. I quit twelve years ago, so sometimes when I get home, I’m still shaking for a little bit. I sit on my couch and drink a beer and let it subside. Then I heat up some bread and lentils and read a newspaper or, if it’s too hot to stay inside, go down to the street and eat my dinner standing there, watching people walking down the block, wondering where they are headed, wondering if anyone is waiting for them to come home.
 
**The above is an excerpt from “Standard Loneliness Package,” the first story in the new collection SORRY PLEASE THANK YOU by Charles Yu.**

Copyright © 2012 by Charles Yu. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Praise

“What Charles Yu does very well—it is a long list, but this may be its most notable entry—is to create strange and disturbingly normal alternate realities. In his first novel, How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe, Yu conceived of Minor Universe 31, a universe filled with people widely, albeit unhappily, using time machines. He took sci-fi theories and ran them through a sort of literary normalizer, applying ample wit, pop-culture references, psychological insight, metaphorical flair, and a vital sweetness (his young, isolated protagonist, in search of his father, even has a stray dog for a pet). Overflowing with quasi-scientific jargon, the novel was exciting and funny and, at times, downright spooky, much like the quantum theories that Yu invoked. But most of all, for a story about a time travel mechanic, it was unfailingly realistic. . . . In his new collection of stories, Sorry Please Thank You, Yu no longer constrains himself to the pre-requisites of realism—or, to be more accurate, the appearance of realism. Freed from this yoke, he takes off in every narrative direction with the glee of a school-kid released for summer vacation. . . . While Yu has drawn many comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut for his entertaining and adept satire, and to Douglas Adams for his intelligent and inventive silliness, Donald Barthelme seems an overlooked literary forebear. . . . As readers, we are all the better for Yu’s astonishing mix of wild imagination and meticulous restraint. Of the three polite phrases that comprise his title—Sorry Please Thank You—only the last is of true relevance here. No sorries, Charles. Just thanks.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“There's some of the cerebral gamesmanship of Jonathan Lethem, the resigned sadness of Kurt Vonnegut, the Phil Dickian paranoiac distrust of consumer culture. But Yu's voice, sensibility and approach are unique, especially in the ways he wrings humor and pathos out of stripped-down syntax and seemingly passive protagonists . . . The stories deliver more than their fair share of bitter laughs, philosophical conundrums and existential gut punches.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“A mix of science fiction, absurdist humor and Beckettian monologue, with storytelling techniques that twist narrative into a computer-esque objectivism; think Donald Barthleme's strangest pyrotechnics in a Philip K. Dick or Haruki Murakami world . . . [Charles Yu is ] the computer century's heir to Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury.”
—Shelf Awareness

“Yu’s workman-like sentences are unexpectedly emotive, while also being almost always very funny . . . As with his critically acclaimed, much-adored 2010 debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Yu’s new baker’s dozen of satiric stories tell of a future that’s really just an exaggerated present . . . Like the best science fiction writers, Yu provides seemingly gratuitous logistical information to mitigate any hint of farce . . . Yu is a master of the slow reveal. It sometimes takes pages to understand where we are and why, but as the chatty protagonists joke and confess their deepest pains, details accrue and outlines fill in. And when we are finally oriented, the universe he has created feels eerily complete . . . Imaginary lands become possible worlds; cunning tricks grow into game theory; playing pretend morphs into explorations of false consciousness. Each story in Sorry Please Thank You is staggeringly smart, and none feel like anything but entertainment. Cultish fans of the NBC comedy “Community,’’ this book is for you.”
—The Boston Globe

“I don't know that there's a better story-bending talent at work than Yu since the rise of George Saunders . . . If you take a longer view you can see that Yu's success has many parents, from the oft-quoted Stein, the tone of Hemingway and Beckett, Virginia Woolf's fanciful short creations (as in, say, the story "Kew Gardens"), Calvino's game-faced fantasies and the low-key but powerful satire of Kurt Vonnegut . . . a tour-de-force.”
—Alan Cheuse, NPR.org
 
“Lovely and heartfelt . . . A brilliantly manic ride . . . Yu has an undeniable gift for describing, in clean, economical prose, the mechanics of things that don't exist or are impossible."
—The Wall Street Journal

“Stand back. The lead story in Sorry Please Thank You, this spritely new collection by L.A. writer Charles Yu, has the title ‘Standard Loneliness Package’ and it announces that a sly, nimble fantasist with a speculative edge is at work here. [An] adroit piece of work . . . Experiment plus emotion, we don’t often find these two elements together, but when it happens, as it does in most of these stories . . . it makes for terrific reading for the heart as well as the head.”
—Alan Cheuse for NPR’s All Things Considered
 
“Charles Yu won us over with his weird, melancholy novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and now he's back . . . [These] stories are psychological studies of neurotic nerds, struggling to stay alive as they fight liches and loneliness. They're beautiful, strange, and funny.”
—io9
 
“Yu’s bold, playful voice evokes a computer-era Donald Barthelme, but his stylistic journey into the vast universe that is the human mind is refreshingly distinctive.”
—Booklist

“Laugh-out-loud moments of strangeness artfully exist in a contemporary fictional structure . . . With this collection, steeped in originality, we get echoes of David Foster Wallace’s early collection, Girl with the Curious Hair. Like Wallace, Yu abandons the more self-serving, insular metafiction of the past 40 years for a fresher form. Using technology, pop culture, etc., he attempts to write fiction that can be best shared with readers, not just critics or scholars. Yu, in fact, marries science and literature . . . Characteristic of his work, Yu mixes the beauty of human emotion with the science fiction to invent highly original, highly entertaining scenes and stories. He poses questions of reality and existence. You first think you’re chuckling to yourself. Then, without warning, you‘ve got that ‘reaching final altitude’ feeling in your stomach—a sudden change . . . Yu examines what it means to exist now and, in his own way, what it will mean in the future. It’s almost as if these stories, through their science fiction and futuristic themes twinned with a humorous yet moving style, strive to reinvent what we know as metafiction . . . Yu follows Vonnegut and Wallace in this style of metafictional, literary pilgrimage”
—Paste Magazine

 “Grade A- . . . Pick it up and kiss your weekend good-bye . . . The best comparisons, though it feels a little hyperbolic to say, might be made with Vonnegut’s more pessimistic novels, books like Cat’s Cradle, Deadeye Dick, and Timequake. With Sorry Please Thank You, Yu has achieved something rare: an aggressively imagined work of fiction in which the concepts (mostly) serve the characters.”
—Boston Phoenix

“Charles Yu's outstanding collection Sorry Please Thank You collects short fiction by the author who gave us the terrific How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Yu's blend of literary fiction's style with sci-fi's wild ideas is beautifully realized here, especially in the moving gem "Standard Loneliness Package." One of the year's best collections in any genre.”
—The Austin American-Statesman

“Enchanting . . . Yu’s ability to assume widely diverging roles as a storyteller is dazzling . . . Those not bothered by diverse writing styles will find reading Yu to be an exciting adventure.”
—Library Journal 
 
“Like his debut novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu's new collection of stories mixes humor and clever conceits with a perfect deadpan delivery . . . Sharp, crisp insights that will have you chuckling and shaking your head.”
—Los Angeles Times
 
“The author behind three of the most unusual books of fiction published in the past five years . . . Untraditional but weirdly glorious narratives that, for all their experimental form, end up carrying as much or even more emotional force as your original, more conventional vessel would have.”
—Poets and Writers
 
“In his new collection, Charles Yu applies his trademark winking, pop-culture-infused, sci-fi mentality to a series of short stories . . . Clever and cutting.”
—Flavorwire
 
“Whether Yu’s work is dark, thought provoking, humorous, or all of the above, it’s always compulsively readable.”
—Owl and Bear

“Looking for the next great voice in fiction? Young author Charles Yu’s short stories beg comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams, but he’s funnier than both.”
—Men’s Health
 
“Entertaining . . . Like a friend who stops by unexpectedly with a bunch of mind-bending tales to share . . . had me laughing . . . go order a copy.”
—Geekdad, Wired Magazine
 
“Impressive . . . Charts eclectic territory, from a zombie in a megamart to a new pharmaceutical drug that generates a sense of purpose, and explores retreats from reality and emotion . . . [Am] amusing send up American consumer culture.”
—Publishers Weekly

Additional formats

  • Sorry Please Thank You
    Sorry Please Thank You
    Stories
    Charles Yu
    Ebook
    Jul 24, 2012
  • Sorry Please Thank You
    Sorry Please Thank You
    Stories
    Charles Yu
    Ebook
    Jul 24, 2012

Other books in this series

  • Harrow
    Harrow
    A novel (Kirkus Prize)
    Joy Williams
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 05, 2022
  • Phase Six
    Phase Six
    A novel
    Jim Shepard
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 24, 2022
  • Whereabouts
    Whereabouts
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 29, 2022
  • A Bright Ray of Darkness
    A Bright Ray of Darkness
    A novel
    Ethan Hawke
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 18, 2022
  • The Sun Collective
    The Sun Collective
    A Novel
    Charles Baxter
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 05, 2021
  • Red Pill
    Red Pill
    A novel
    Hari Kunzru
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 31, 2021
  • Leave Society
    Leave Society
    Tao Lin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 03, 2021
  • I Give It to You
    I Give It to You
    A Novel
    Valerie Martin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 27, 2021
  • Push (Revised)
    Push (Revised)
    Sapphire
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Jun 22, 2021
  • Why I Don't Write
    Why I Don't Write
    And Other Stories
    Susan Minot
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 15, 2021
  • Animal Spirit
    Animal Spirit
    Stories
    Francesca Marciano
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 18, 2021
  • Friends and Strangers
    Friends and Strangers
    A novel (A Read with Jenna Pick)
    J. Courtney Sullivan
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 27, 2021
  • The Knockout Queen
    The Knockout Queen
    A novel
    Rufi Thorpe
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 02, 2021
  • We Ride Upon Sticks
    We Ride Upon Sticks
    A Novel (Alex Award Winner)
    Quan Barry
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 16, 2021
  • Weather
    Weather
    Jenny Offill
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 19, 2021
  • The Resisters
    The Resisters
    A novel
    Gish Jen
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 12, 2021
  • The Red Lotus
    The Red Lotus
    A Novel
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 05, 2021
  • Interior Chinatown
    Interior Chinatown
    A Novel (National Book Award Winner)
    Charles Yu
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 17, 2020
  • Middle England
    Middle England
    A Novel (Costa Novel Award)
    Jonathan Coe
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 14, 2020
  • Everything Inside
    Everything Inside
    Stories (A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick)
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 07, 2020
  • The Flight Portfolio
    The Flight Portfolio
    A novel
    Julie Orringer
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 30, 2020
  • Water Witches
    Water Witches
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 30, 2020
  • Dual Citizens
    Dual Citizens
    A novel
    Alix Ohlin
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 19, 2020
  • The River
    The River
    A novel
    Peter Heller
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 03, 2020
  • Chemistry
    Chemistry
    A Novel
    Weike Wang
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 03, 2018
  • The Girl at the Baggage Claim
    The Girl at the Baggage Claim
    Explaining the East-West Culture Gap
    Gish Jen
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 16, 2018
  • The Tragedy of Brady Sims
    The Tragedy of Brady Sims
    Ernest J. Gaines
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 29, 2017
  • How to Set a Fire and Why
    How to Set a Fire and Why
    A Novel
    Jesse Ball
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 13, 2017
  • The Mare
    The Mare
    A Novel
    Mary Gaitskill
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2016
  • She Weeps Each Time You're Born
    She Weeps Each Time You're Born
    Quan Barry
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 23, 2016
  • New American Stories
    New American Stories
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Jul 21, 2015
  • Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
    Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
    Chris Bohjalian
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 26, 2015
  • Boo
    Boo
    Neil Smith
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    May 12, 2015
  • My Wicked Wicked Ways
    My Wicked Wicked Ways
    Poems
    Sandra Cisneros
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 28, 2015
  • Robogenesis
    Robogenesis
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 17, 2015
  • The Book of Unknown Americans
    The Book of Unknown Americans
    Cristina Henríquez
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 03, 2015
  • At the Bottom of Everything
    At the Bottom of Everything
    A Novel
    Ben Dolnick
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2014
  • Claire of the Sea Light
    Claire of the Sea Light
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 01, 2014
  • The Lowland
    The Lowland
    National Book Award Finalist; Man Booker Prize Finalist
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 17, 2014
  • The Engagements
    The Engagements
    J. Courtney Sullivan
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 20, 2014
  • Snapper
    Snapper
    Brian Kimberling
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2014
  • Vampires in the Lemon Grove
    Vampires in the Lemon Grove
    And Other Stories
    Karen Russell
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 14, 2014
  • The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
    Oprah's Book Club 2.0
    Ayana Mathis
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 08, 2013
  • The News from Spain
    The News from Spain
    Joan Wickersham
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 02, 2013
  • The Dog Stars
    The Dog Stars
    Peter Heller
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 07, 2013
  • Paprika
    Paprika
    Yasutaka Tsutsui
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2013
  • Amped
    Amped
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2013
  • Mr g
    Mr g
    A Novel About the Creation
    Alan Lightman
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 30, 2012
  • Angelmaker
    Angelmaker
    Nick Harkaway
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 23, 2012
  • The Ecstasy of Influence
    The Ecstasy of Influence
    Nonfictions, Etc.
    Jonathan Lethem
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 02, 2012
  • We Others
    We Others
    New & Selected Stories
    Steven Millhauser
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 04, 2012
  • Robopocalypse
    Robopocalypse
    A Novel
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 17, 2012
  • Forrest Gump
    Forrest Gump
    Winston Groom
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 21, 2012
  • Gryphon
    Gryphon
    New and Selected Stories
    Charles Baxter
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 14, 2012
  • Create Dangerously
    Create Dangerously
    The Immigrant Artist at Work
    Edwidge Danticat
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 20, 2011
  • Machine Man
    Machine Man
    Max Barry
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 09, 2011
  • Swamplandia!
    Swamplandia!
    Karen Russell
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 26, 2011
  • The Curfew
    The Curfew
    Jesse Ball
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 14, 2011
  • You Know Who You Are
    You Know Who You Are
    Ben Dolnick
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 22, 2011
  • The Invisible Bridge
    The Invisible Bridge
    Julie Orringer
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2011
  • A Gate at the Stairs
    A Gate at the Stairs
    Lorrie Moore
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 24, 2010
  • The Sheriff of Yrnameer
    The Sheriff of Yrnameer
    Michael Rubens
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 10, 2010
  • Happy All the Time
    Happy All the Time
    A Novel
    Laurie Colwin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 23, 2010
  • The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To
    The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To
    A Novel
    DC Pierson
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 26, 2010
  • Precious
    Precious
    Sapphire
    Audiobook Download
    Oct 20, 2009
  • The Gone-Away World
    The Gone-Away World
    Nick Harkaway
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 11, 2009
  • Unaccustomed Earth
    Unaccustomed Earth
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Our Story Begins
    Our Story Begins
    New and Selected Stories
    Tobias Wolff
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Brother, I'm Dying
    Brother, I'm Dying
    National Book Award Finalist
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2008
  • A Handbook to Luck
    A Handbook to Luck
    Cristina García
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2008
  • The Translation of Dr. Apelles
    The Translation of Dr. Apelles
    David Treuer
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2008
  • Typical American
    Typical American
    Gish Jen
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2008
  • St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
    St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
    Stories
    Karen Russell
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 14, 2007
  • The Brief History of the Dead
    The Brief History of the Dead
    Kevin Brockmeier
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 09, 2007
  • Before You Know Kindness
    Before You Know Kindness
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 09, 2005
  • Project X
    Project X
    A Novel
    Jim Shepard
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2005
  • Paco's Story
    Paco's Story
    A Novel
    Larry Heinemann
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2005
  • The Dew Breaker
    The Dew Breaker
    Edwidge Danticat
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 08, 2005
  • Einstein's Dreams
    Einstein's Dreams
    Alan Lightman
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 09, 2004
  • The Fifth Book of Peace
    The Fifth Book of Peace
    Maxine Hong Kingston
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 28, 2004
  • Old School
    Old School
    Tobias Wolff
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 31, 2004
  • The Fortress of Solitude
    The Fortress of Solitude
    Jonathan Lethem
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 24, 2004
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    Mark Haddon
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 18, 2004
  • Jennifer Government
    Jennifer Government
    Max Barry
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 06, 2004
  • The Little Friend
    The Little Friend
    Donna Tartt
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 28, 2003
  • The Favorite Game
    The Favorite Game
    Leonard Cohen
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 14, 2003
  • Caramelo
    Caramelo
    Sandra Cisneros
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2003
  • The Dive From Clausen's Pier
    The Dive From Clausen's Pier
    A Novel
    Ann Packer
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2003
  • Empire Falls
    Empire Falls
    Richard Russo
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2002
  • Motherless Brooklyn
    Motherless Brooklyn
    A Novel
    Jonathan Lethem
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 24, 2000
  • Harrow
    Harrow
    A novel (Kirkus Prize)
    Joy Williams
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 05, 2022
  • Phase Six
    Phase Six
    A novel
    Jim Shepard
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 24, 2022
  • Whereabouts
    Whereabouts
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 29, 2022
  • A Bright Ray of Darkness
    A Bright Ray of Darkness
    A novel
    Ethan Hawke
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 18, 2022
  • The Sun Collective
    The Sun Collective
    A Novel
    Charles Baxter
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 05, 2021
  • Red Pill
    Red Pill
    A novel
    Hari Kunzru
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 31, 2021
  • Leave Society
    Leave Society
    Tao Lin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 03, 2021
  • I Give It to You
    I Give It to You
    A Novel
    Valerie Martin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 27, 2021
  • Push (Revised)
    Push (Revised)
    Sapphire
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Jun 22, 2021
  • Why I Don't Write
    Why I Don't Write
    And Other Stories
    Susan Minot
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 15, 2021
  • Animal Spirit
    Animal Spirit
    Stories
    Francesca Marciano
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 18, 2021
  • Friends and Strangers
    Friends and Strangers
    A novel (A Read with Jenna Pick)
    J. Courtney Sullivan
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 27, 2021
  • The Knockout Queen
    The Knockout Queen
    A novel
    Rufi Thorpe
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 02, 2021
  • We Ride Upon Sticks
    We Ride Upon Sticks
    A Novel (Alex Award Winner)
    Quan Barry
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 16, 2021
  • Weather
    Weather
    Jenny Offill
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 19, 2021
  • The Resisters
    The Resisters
    A novel
    Gish Jen
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 12, 2021
  • The Red Lotus
    The Red Lotus
    A Novel
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 05, 2021
  • Interior Chinatown
    Interior Chinatown
    A Novel (National Book Award Winner)
    Charles Yu
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 17, 2020
  • Middle England
    Middle England
    A Novel (Costa Novel Award)
    Jonathan Coe
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 14, 2020
  • Everything Inside
    Everything Inside
    Stories (A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick)
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 07, 2020
  • The Flight Portfolio
    The Flight Portfolio
    A novel
    Julie Orringer
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 30, 2020
  • Water Witches
    Water Witches
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 30, 2020
  • Dual Citizens
    Dual Citizens
    A novel
    Alix Ohlin
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 19, 2020
  • The River
    The River
    A novel
    Peter Heller
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 03, 2020
  • Chemistry
    Chemistry
    A Novel
    Weike Wang
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 03, 2018
  • The Girl at the Baggage Claim
    The Girl at the Baggage Claim
    Explaining the East-West Culture Gap
    Gish Jen
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 16, 2018
  • The Tragedy of Brady Sims
    The Tragedy of Brady Sims
    Ernest J. Gaines
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 29, 2017
  • How to Set a Fire and Why
    How to Set a Fire and Why
    A Novel
    Jesse Ball
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 13, 2017
  • The Mare
    The Mare
    A Novel
    Mary Gaitskill
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 04, 2016
  • She Weeps Each Time You're Born
    She Weeps Each Time You're Born
    Quan Barry
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 23, 2016
  • New American Stories
    New American Stories
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Jul 21, 2015
  • Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
    Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
    Chris Bohjalian
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 26, 2015
  • Boo
    Boo
    Neil Smith
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    May 12, 2015
  • My Wicked Wicked Ways
    My Wicked Wicked Ways
    Poems
    Sandra Cisneros
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 28, 2015
  • Robogenesis
    Robogenesis
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 17, 2015
  • The Book of Unknown Americans
    The Book of Unknown Americans
    Cristina Henríquez
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 03, 2015
  • At the Bottom of Everything
    At the Bottom of Everything
    A Novel
    Ben Dolnick
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2014
  • Claire of the Sea Light
    Claire of the Sea Light
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 01, 2014
  • The Lowland
    The Lowland
    National Book Award Finalist; Man Booker Prize Finalist
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 17, 2014
  • The Engagements
    The Engagements
    J. Courtney Sullivan
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    May 20, 2014
  • Snapper
    Snapper
    Brian Kimberling
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 11, 2014
  • Vampires in the Lemon Grove
    Vampires in the Lemon Grove
    And Other Stories
    Karen Russell
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 14, 2014
  • The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
    The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
    Oprah's Book Club 2.0
    Ayana Mathis
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 08, 2013
  • The News from Spain
    The News from Spain
    Joan Wickersham
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 02, 2013
  • The Dog Stars
    The Dog Stars
    Peter Heller
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    May 07, 2013
  • Paprika
    Paprika
    Yasutaka Tsutsui
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2013
  • Amped
    Amped
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2013
  • Mr g
    Mr g
    A Novel About the Creation
    Alan Lightman
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 30, 2012
  • Angelmaker
    Angelmaker
    Nick Harkaway
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 23, 2012
  • The Ecstasy of Influence
    The Ecstasy of Influence
    Nonfictions, Etc.
    Jonathan Lethem
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Oct 02, 2012
  • We Others
    We Others
    New & Selected Stories
    Steven Millhauser
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 04, 2012
  • Robopocalypse
    Robopocalypse
    A Novel
    Daniel H. Wilson
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 17, 2012
  • Forrest Gump
    Forrest Gump
    Winston Groom
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 21, 2012
  • Gryphon
    Gryphon
    New and Selected Stories
    Charles Baxter
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Feb 14, 2012
  • Create Dangerously
    Create Dangerously
    The Immigrant Artist at Work
    Edwidge Danticat
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 20, 2011
  • Machine Man
    Machine Man
    Max Barry
    $15.95 US
    Paperback
    Aug 09, 2011
  • Swamplandia!
    Swamplandia!
    Karen Russell
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jul 26, 2011
  • The Curfew
    The Curfew
    Jesse Ball
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 14, 2011
  • You Know Who You Are
    You Know Who You Are
    Ben Dolnick
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Mar 22, 2011
  • The Invisible Bridge
    The Invisible Bridge
    Julie Orringer
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 25, 2011
  • A Gate at the Stairs
    A Gate at the Stairs
    Lorrie Moore
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 24, 2010
  • The Sheriff of Yrnameer
    The Sheriff of Yrnameer
    Michael Rubens
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 10, 2010
  • Happy All the Time
    Happy All the Time
    A Novel
    Laurie Colwin
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 23, 2010
  • The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To
    The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To
    A Novel
    DC Pierson
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 26, 2010
  • Precious
    Precious
    Sapphire
    Audiobook Download
    Oct 20, 2009
  • The Gone-Away World
    The Gone-Away World
    Nick Harkaway
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 11, 2009
  • Unaccustomed Earth
    Unaccustomed Earth
    Jhumpa Lahiri
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Our Story Begins
    Our Story Begins
    New and Selected Stories
    Tobias Wolff
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 07, 2009
  • Brother, I'm Dying
    Brother, I'm Dying
    National Book Award Finalist
    Edwidge Danticat
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2008
  • A Handbook to Luck
    A Handbook to Luck
    Cristina García
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2008
  • The Translation of Dr. Apelles
    The Translation of Dr. Apelles
    David Treuer
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 12, 2008
  • Typical American
    Typical American
    Gish Jen
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 08, 2008
  • St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
    St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
    Stories
    Karen Russell
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 14, 2007
  • The Brief History of the Dead
    The Brief History of the Dead
    Kevin Brockmeier
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jan 09, 2007
  • Before You Know Kindness
    Before You Know Kindness
    Chris Bohjalian
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 09, 2005
  • Project X
    Project X
    A Novel
    Jim Shepard
    $15.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2005
  • Paco's Story
    Paco's Story
    A Novel
    Larry Heinemann
    $14.95 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2005
  • The Dew Breaker
    The Dew Breaker
    Edwidge Danticat
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Mar 08, 2005
  • Einstein's Dreams
    Einstein's Dreams
    Alan Lightman
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Nov 09, 2004
  • The Fifth Book of Peace
    The Fifth Book of Peace
    Maxine Hong Kingston
    $17.95 US
    Paperback
    Sep 28, 2004
  • Old School
    Old School
    Tobias Wolff
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 31, 2004
  • The Fortress of Solitude
    The Fortress of Solitude
    Jonathan Lethem
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Aug 24, 2004
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    Mark Haddon
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    May 18, 2004
  • Jennifer Government
    Jennifer Government
    Max Barry
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Jan 06, 2004
  • The Little Friend
    The Little Friend
    Donna Tartt
    $19.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 28, 2003
  • The Favorite Game
    The Favorite Game
    Leonard Cohen
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 14, 2003
  • Caramelo
    Caramelo
    Sandra Cisneros
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Sep 09, 2003
  • The Dive From Clausen's Pier
    The Dive From Clausen's Pier
    A Novel
    Ann Packer
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 08, 2003
  • Empire Falls
    Empire Falls
    Richard Russo
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Apr 12, 2002
  • Motherless Brooklyn
    Motherless Brooklyn
    A Novel
    Jonathan Lethem
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Oct 24, 2000

Other Books by this Author

  • A People's Future of the United States
    A People's Future of the United States
    Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers
    Charles Yu, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Charlie Jane Anders
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 05, 2019
  • How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    A Novel
    Charles Yu
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 28, 2011
  • A People's Future of the United States
    A People's Future of the United States
    Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers
    Charles Yu, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Charlie Jane Anders
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Feb 05, 2019
  • How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
    A Novel
    Charles Yu
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Jun 28, 2011
Related Articles
Graphic Novels General Classroom Libraries English Language Arts Advanced Placement High School
October 5 2023

PRH Education High School Collections

All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

Read more

PRH Education High School Collections

Graphic Novels General Classroom Libraries English Language Arts Advanced Placement High School
October 5 2023
References Science Translanguaging Collections Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School General Graphic Novels Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series Classroom Libraries
April 19 2022

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

References Science Translanguaging Collections Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School General Graphic Novels Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series Classroom Libraries
April 19 2022
General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Classroom Libraries Social Studies Environmental Science The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels
October 22 2020

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

“Books are a students’ passport to entering and actively participating in a global society with the empathy, compassion, and knowledge it takes to become the problem solvers the world needs.” –Laura Robb   Research shows that reading and literacy directly impacts students’ academic success and personal growth. To help promote the importance of daily independent

Read more

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Classroom Libraries Social Studies Environmental Science The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels
October 22 2020
Connect with Us!

Get the latest news on all things Secondary Education.
Learn about our books, authors, teacher events, and more!

Friend us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe on YouTube

View us on Pinterest

Penguin Random House logo

Our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire.

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House

About Secondary Education

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Conferences
  • Contact your PreK-12 Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads

Penguin Random House

  • PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • global.PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

About Secondary Education

  • About Us
  • FAQ
  • Conferences

Penguin Random House Education

  • Elementary
  • Secondary
  • Higher Ed
  • Common Reads
  • Contact your PreK-12 Representative
  • Browse & subscribe to our newsletters

Penguin Random House

  • PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • global.PenguinRandomHouse.com
  • Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau

Privacy Policy   |   Terms of Use

© 2023 Penguin Random House
Back to Top
prh logo
0
  • prh logo
    0
    Secondary Education
    • English Language Arts
      • Back to main menu
      • English Language Arts
      • Genre: Fiction
      • Genre: Nonfiction
      • Genre: Drama
      • Genre: Poetry
      • Genre: Literary Criticism
      •  
      • Literature: American
      • Literature: British & Commonwealth
      • Literature: Comparative & World
      •  
      • Communication
      • Writing & Composition
      • ESL / ELL
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Social Studies & History
      • Back to main menu
      • Social Studies
      • Anthropology
      • Civics & Government
      • Economics, Business, and Finance
      • Geography
      • Philosophy & Ethics
      • Psychology
      • Sociology
      • History
      • European History
      • Historiography
      • Topical History
      • United States History
      • Wars, Conflicts, and Events
      • World History
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • STEAM / STEM
      • Back to main menu
      • Science
      • Applied Sciences
      • Astronomy
      • Biology & Life Sciences
      • Earth Science
      • Engineering
      • Environmental Science & Issues
      • Essays
      • Experiments, Projects, and Makerspace
      • History of Science
      • Physical Science
      • References
      • Research & Methodology
      • Scientists, Inventors, & Discoveries
      • The Arts
      • Architecture
      • Art
      • Fashion
      • Media Studies
      • Music
      • Performing Arts
      • Math
      • Algebra
      • Arithmetic
      • Calculus
      • Geometry
      • Precalculus
      • Probability & Statistics
      • Quantitative Reasoning
      • More Math…
      • Computer & IT
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Coding & Programming
      • Computer Education
      • Computer Science Principles
      • Cyber Security
      • Design & User Experience (UX)
      • Entertainment & Games
      • Ethics
      • History of IT
      • Internet / The Web
      • Networking
      • Operating Systems
      • Software Manuals
      • More Computers & IT…
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Books in Spanish & World Languages
      • Back to main menu
      • Books in Spanish & World Languages
      • Books in Spanish
      • World Languages
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Study Aids & Exam Prep
      • Back to main menu
      • Study Aids & Exam Prep
      • College Entrance Exams
      • High School Exams
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • More Disciplines
      • Back to main menu
      • Health, Sports, Games, and Crafts
      • Cooking & Nutrition
      • Crafts & Makerspace
      • Games & Activities
      • Health & Wellness
      • Physical Education
      • Religious Studies & Spirituality
      • Agnostic & Atheist
      • Buddhism
      • Christianity
      • Comparative Religion
      • Confucianism
      • Hindu
      • Islam
      • Judaism
      • Notable People in Religious Studies & Spirituality
      • Taoism
      • Visionary & Metaphysical
      • Education & Professional Learning
      • Child and Adolescent Development
      • Classroom Management
      • Counseling
      • Pedagogy & Methodology
      • Schools and Education
      • Special Education
      • References
      • Almanacs
      • Atlases, Gazetteers, and Maps
      • Bibliographies & Indexes
      • Dictionaries
      • Encyclopedias
      • Research Materials
      • Style Manuals
      • Thesauruses
      • Word Lists
      • Writing Skills
      • Browse All Subjects and Topics
    • Guides
    • Collections
    • News
    Wish List (0)
    • Other Penguin Random House Education Sites
    • Elementary
    • Higher Ed
    • Common Reads

    /