Browse All Work by DLPP Recipients and Runners-Up

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A Changed Man

Francine Prose
2005

What is charismatic Holocaust survivor Meyer Maslow to think when a rough-looking young neo-Nazi named Vincent Nolan walks into the Manhattan office of Maslow's human rights foundation and declares that he wants to "save guys like me from becoming guys like me"? As Vincent gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do this, he also transforms those around him: Meyer Maslow, who fears heroism has become a desk job; the foundation's dedicated fund-raiser, Bonnie Kalen, an appealingly vulnerable divorced single mother; and even Bonnie's teenage son.
Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives)

Francine Prose
2005

Presents a biography of late sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, and chronicles his life, later years in exile in Naples, Malta, and Sicily, and his influence on later generations of artists.
After

Francine Prose
2003

In the aftermath of a nearby school shooting, a grief and crisis counselor takes over Central High School and enacts increasingly harsh measures to control students, while those who do not comply disappear.
Gluttony

Francine Prose
2003

Here, novelist and critic Francine Prose serves up a marvelous banquet of witty and engaging observations on the most delicious of deadly sins. Prose traces how our negative notions of gluttony have evolved along with our ideas about salvation and damnation, health and illness, life and death. At the same time, Prose reminds us that it is also an affirmation of pleasure and passion. "The broad, shiny face of the glutton," Prose writes, "has been and continues to be the mirror in which we see ourselves, our hopes and fears, our darkest dreams and deepest desires." Never have we delved more deeply into this mirror than in this insightful and stimulating book.
Sicilian Odyssey (National Geographic Directions)

Francine Prose
2003

The author explores the ancient island of Sicily, considering the various cultural legacies--Greek, Roman, Arab, and Norman--that have shaped the island's colorful culture and history.
The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists they Inspired

Francine Prose
2002

Profiles nine women who served as muses to famous artists, discussing how each of them inspired the works of their artistic counterpart.
Blue Angel: A Novel

Francine Prose
2000

It has been years since Swenson, a professor of creative writing at a small New England college, has published a novel of his own. It's been even longer since a student of his has shown a glimmer of talent. And academia, with its increasingly stifling politically correct environment, isn't what it used to be. Enter Angela Argo, a pierced, tattooed student with a rare gift for writing. Fearless and ambitious, Angela seems like the answer to Swenson's prayers. Better yet, she wants his help. What could be more perfect? However, as experience shows, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
You Never Know: A Legend of Lamed-vavniks

Francine Prose
1998

Though mocked by the rest of the villagers, poor Schmuel the shoemaker turns out to be a very special person.
Guided Tours of Hell: Novellas

Francine Prose
1997

Two novellas. In the title piece, a New York playwright tours a death camp in the Czech Republic as part of a literary conference, while Three Pigs in Five Days is on how boring Paris can be if your loved one is not with you.
Hunters and Gatherers: A Novel

Francine Prose
1995

Hunters and Gatherers, Francine Prose's withering look at the New Age, is a novel about men and women, power and friendship, sex and competition, and who does what to whom.
The Peaceable Kingdom: Stories

Francine Prose
1993

The inhabitants of Prose's peaceable kingdom are getting the surprises of their lives. The things they thought they'd wanted - marriage and children, travel, work - even the compromises they imagined they'd made, no longer sustain them. A young woman on her Italian honeymoon suddenly realizes that her high-minded ecologist husband will have to save the world without her. A child on a class trip recognizes in the friezes of an Egyptian tomb the inevitable, tragic procession of her life to come. A teenager has a rude awakening when she is pursued to Paris by the boy of her dreams. Nothing is dependable in this world where weddings and birthday parties go unpredictably, awry, strangers blurt out disturbing confessions, and even the family pets reveal themselves to be agents of discord and disruption - and where the seemingly tranquil surface of ordinary happiness barely conceals the darker, more mysterious and brutal truth about this deceptively peaceable kingdom.
Primitive People: A Novel

Francine Prose
1992

Young Simone flees the chaotic violence of Haiti only to land in a world no less brutal or bizarre--the world of upstate New York's Porter family. Here, dead sheep swing from trees, light bulbs are ceremoniously buried, a fur-clad mother carves terrifying goddesses from pumice, and learning to lie is the principle rite of passage into adulthood.
Women and Children First: Stories

Francine Prose
1988

A young woman, disappointed by her lover, discovers that "what you'd hoped was the start of your life could turn out to be a scene from someone else's porn movie." A college professor is disturbed by his attraction to the physical therapist caring for his dying father. A Manhattan gallery owner baby-sitting her infant nephew watches herself pretending to be her suburban housewife sister.
Bigfoot Dreams: A Novel

Francine Prose
1986

A novel about learning to live in a world stranger than any tabloid headline Though she's written dispatches from across the globe-covering the Loch Ness monster, live dinosaurs, and the ever-enigmatic yeti-Vera Perl never leaves the offices of This Week, a supermarket tabloid covering the universe's stranger side. Her reporting is done entirely inside her own head, and now she's contemplating a Bigfoot exposé that will astonish even the most jaded conspiracy theorist. No one is better than Vera at imagining these weird, wild stories, because more than anything, she wants them to be true. One day she dreams up a scoop about two Brooklyn children whose lemonade stand has amazing curative properties, and is shocked to learn that the children she invented actually exist. The resulting lawsuit sends this master of hoaxes into a very real tailspin, and a search for something even more elusive than Bigfoot: solace.
Hungry Hearts: A Novel

Francine Prose
1983

Presents the story of Dinah Rappoport, star of the Yiddish stage, and her three weddings to the same man.
Household Saints: A Novel

Francine Prose
1981

The setting is New York's Little Italy in the 1950s -- a community closely knit by gossip and tradition. This is the story of an extraordinary family, the Santangelos. There is Joseph, the butcher, who cheats in his shop and at pinochle, only to find the deck is stacked against him; his mother, Mrs. Santangelo, who sees the evil eye everywhere and who calls on her saints; and Catherine, his wife, whose determination to raise a modern daughter leads her to confront ancient questions. Finally, there is Theresa, Joseph and Catherine's daughter, whose astonishing discovery of purpose moves the book toward its unpredictable conclusion.
Animal Magnetism

Francine Prose
1978

The author's fourth novel about a nineteenth century doctor who is plagued by various maladies until he discovers relief through mesmerism, or animal magnetism.
Marie Laveau

Francine Prose
1977
The Glorious Ones: A Novel

Francine Prose
1974

The Glorious Ones are an unlikely troupe-there's Armanda, the cheerful dwarf and ex-nun; chattering Columbina; Pantalone the miser; and the wicked Brighella; all led by Flaminio Scala, the self-proclaimed most courageous man in Christendom. They travel up and down seventeenth-century Italy, performing in palaces and poor villages alike. For all their wild differences, not one of them is prepared for the arrival of the mysterious Isabella, their new boss.
Judah the Pious: A Novel

Francine Prose
1973

The Polish monarch has outlawed a portion of the Jewish funeral rite, and none of the community’s lawyers, judges, or scholars will come forward to defend the custom before the crown. Only one man dares challenge the sovereign: the spindly old Rabbi Eliezer of Rimanov, whose eccentric habits conceal the mind of a dreamer and the curiosity of a child. The rabbi is reduced to laughter at the sight of the king, for the country’s ruler is but a boy—and Rabbi Eliezer knows how to speak to youngsters. They make a bet: If the rabbi can convince him that there is more to the universe than meets the eye, the funeral rite will be restored. To make his case, Eliezer launches into the story of Judah ben Simon, a tale of such majesty and wonder that it promises to make a dreamer out of all who hear it, changing them forevermore.
Rhino, Rhino, Sweet Potato

Francine Prose and Matthew S. Armstrong
2009

When hungry rhinos rampage through the village eating all the sweet potatoes, Roy bravely goes and teaches them new ways to live.
Leopold, the Liar of Leipzig

Francine Prose and Einav Aviram
2005

After a scientist accuses him of lying, Leopold, who has told tales in Leipzig's zoo for many years, is surprised to find that he must explain the nature of storytelling.
The Demons’ Mistake: A Story from Chelm

Francine Prose and Mark H. Podwal
2000

Demons from the town of Chelm hide in a crate being shipped to New York because they hope to practice their mischief where streets are paved with gold and there are parties every day.
The Angels’ Mistake: Stories of Chelm

Francine Prose and Mark H. Podwal
1997

Explains how a botched mission by two angels created the town of fools known as Chelm.
Dybbuk: A Story Made in Heaven

Francine Prose and Mark H. Podwal
1996

Because forty days before a baby is born the angels in heaven decide whom it will marry, nothing prevents the wedding of Leah and Chonon from taking place.