Twenty-five years after Jesus’ Son, a haunting new collection of short stories on mortality and transcendence, from National Book Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis JohnsonThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.Advance praise for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden“The secret of all this is the shifting wattage, the slipshod magnificence and crazy wonder of the Johnsonian sentence. Clause by clause, word by word, anything becomes plausible. . . . Whatever Johnson had gone through, however he expressed it on the page, it would all have been wasted had it not ended up being funny, because then a major percentage of wisdom would have been missing. . . . He led a certain life and found ways of giving expression to that life.”—Geoff Dyer, The Guardian “We lost one of the great writers of his generation last year, but before his death, Denis Johnson finished off one final, brilliant short story collection. . . . Beautifully indicates Johnson’s singular voice, the way he contemplated the past and edges toward the cosmic.”—Entertainment Weekly “The late Johnson writes here with rare understanding, compassion, and generosity of spirit. Elegiac, yet oddly hopeful, these stories represent a summation of hard lessons that in the end can only be called wisdom.”—Library Journal (starred review)“Mesmerizing . . . psychologically revelatory, spiritually inquisitive, and grimly funny . . . Johnson will be remembered and revered as an incisive storyteller fluent in the comedy and tragedy of human confusion and the transcendence of compassion.”—Booklist (starred review)“American literature suffered a serious loss with Johnson’s death. These final stories underscore what we’ll miss.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“An instant classic . . . a masterpiece of deep humanity and astonishing prose.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)