Director of Iowa Writers Workshop and former student of Marilynne Robinson, Lan Samantha Chang is as incredible and well-groomed a storyteller as that pedigree suggests.
This novel, set largely in a writing program quite similar to Iowa, is intimate territory for Chang and a familiarity that pays off in spades for the reader. The novel's characters inhabit a wonderfully and immediately authentic atmosphere; the story's subtlety making for a pastoral and elegant work opf fiction.
Roman's star rises early, and his first book wins a prestigious prize. Meanwhile, Bernard labors for years over a single poem. Secrets of the past begin to surface, friendships are broken, and Miranda continues to cast a shadow over their lives. What is the hidden burden of early promise? What are the personal costs of a life devoted to the pursuit of art?All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a brilliant evocation of the demands of ambition and vocation, personal loyalty and poetic truth.
