Book description
Solitude and Other Stories represents Arturo Vivante's quest to use writing to uncover hidden truths. These twenty-four short stories-set in Italy, New England, and Canada-explore various themes, including, as the title story says, solitude. Vivante begins the narrative with a self-oblivious solitude that will become loneliness. Day after day, night…
Why read it?
1 author picked Solitude and Other Stories as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This book won the University of Notre Dame Fiction Prize in 2004.
What I liked about this, to my mind, increasingly autobiographical collection of short stories is Vivante’s voice. His writing is as authentic and straightforward as you’ll find in any literary fiction—no gimmicks, no self-regarding cleverness, just a plainspoken realist who touches a nerve, or two, in every story.
Set in Italy, Canada, and the United States, you get geographical as well as thematic diversity, but as far as I can tell, much is focused on the ups and downs of his own professional and family life. I found…
If you love Solitude and Other Stories...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like Solitude and Other Stories?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Solitude and Other Stories.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
181
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Solitude and Other Stories, you might also like...
Child of Vanris
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
Almost Home
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
