Praise for Afterword
“AFTERWORD offers up every literary treat imaginable: a wildly inventive plot that keeps you turning pages, characters who steal your heart, big ideas that engage your mind, and gorgeous prose that delights your senses. I’m a big fan of Nina Schuyler and this is her best book yet!” — Ellen Sussman, New York Times bestselling author
“Her riveting “Afterword,” a prescient yet eloquent third novel that’s as topical as tomorrow’s headlines. The literary page-turner prophetically taps into ethical and moral quandaries surging to the fore over the deployment and potential abuse of artificial intelligence.”– Mercury News, September 12, 2023
#1 pick for May! ” The author’s brilliant attention to detail creates a compelling world in which her inventive plot unfolds.” Alta Journal
“Nina’s prose is near perfect, the story profound and compelling, raising the timely question: will A.I. actually force us to be more in touch with our humanity? Nina Schuyler’s writing is as brilliant as her protagonist, Virginia.”–Holly Lynn Payne, Page One Podcast
“The novel is an incredible intrspective work that makes us ponder the ethics and humanity that AI can display as they only become more advanced and capable of learning.” —Alex Carrigan, Heavy Feather Review
A June Favorite–Towne Center Books
“Schuyler’s book surprised me in a way so many stories grappling with technology don’t. What sets Schuyler’s novel apart from other books in the genre was that it never distilled the relationship between humans and machines into a single moral suggestion.” Shelby Hinte, Write or Die Magazine
“There are so many textures and layers of mystery in this compelling and fierce novel–from identity to memory, from the authentic to the false. But the most crushing and heartening of these is the absolute mystery of human love. My heart was broken reading it, and my heart was put together again, in new ways. ” Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
“This beautiful book is so many things, an intimate love story and a powerful study on grief, a gripping mystery that examines the limits and possibilities of technology, and within that a deeper mystery, the ultimate black box problem: what it is to love—and truly know—someone.” — Katie M. Flynn, The Companions
“AFTERWORD is so propulsive and mysterious I found myself speeding up, but at the same time so patient and well-observed, I had to slow down. Take a sentence like this: ‘An old woman, with a hunched back and a white cardigan sweater buttoned all the way up, is standing in front of the rows of yogurt, muttering something about vanilla.’ You see what I mean? Nina Schuyler has an outstanding sense of story. You fall into this novel and you stay there.” — Peter Orner, Still No Word From You: Notes in the Margin
Nina Schuyler’s novel AFTERWORD is riveting – I could not put it down. Suspenseful, poetic and deeply moving, the novel explores humanity and artificial intelligence and what it means to love someone. I was immediately drawn to the lives of Haru and Virginia, their separate and shared histories. With a surgeon’s precision, Ms. Schuyler has written another exemplary story. —Devi S. Laskar, The Atlas of Reds and Blues and Circa
A haunting portrait of grief, Nina Schuyler’s “Afterword” is a must-read for those who love dystopian, science fiction, complex plotlines with an emotional core. —Anthro Magazine
“AFTERWORD is complex and elegant…. This is a love story and a horror story, a mystery and a morality play. But above all, it is just so damn beautiful. The whole book feels gently haunted. Nina Schuyler’s blend of literary intricacy and speculative fiction makes this read perfect for fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.” —bookchew
“Schuyler makes palpable the love between Haru and Virginia, which informs Virginia’s conflicted desire to keep his memory alive and leads to many clever insights (“The definition of human should include the word ‘flaw’ in it”). This will move readers.”–Publishers Weekly
Praise for The Translator
Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction
Finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize
“Evocative, powerful, and well-paced, Schuyler’s novel illuminates how interpreting a person is as complicated an art as translating a book because of the risk of reading what one wants to discover rather than what one needs to learn.” — Booklist (starred review)
“An elegant, poetic meditation on the art of translation, ultimately reflecting the search for compassionate meaning in the world.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“…moving and intelligent.” — Sylvia Brownrigg, San Francisco Chronicle
“What stands out in Nina Schuyler’s complex and absorbing novel is her ability to craft descriptive and emotionally engaging language with respect to her characters and how she deftly weaves her storyline. A solid, compelling novel from beginning to end, The Translator is truly exceptional and highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library fiction collections.” — Midwest Book Review
“Relatable, beautiful, and honest, The Translator is as heartbreaking as it is redemptive, written by an author with a firm grasp on both the interior and exterior lives of her characters. Schuyler’s writing is like the calm before the storm — quiet, but packed with power, the perfect stage for a novel that explores the differences between truly reading our loved ones’ stories and merely translating them into a language we can more readily comprehend.” — Bookslut
“In Nina Schuyler’s brilliant new novel, The Translator, we follow the fascinating story of a translator who has lost the ability to speak her native tongue. We journey with Hanna to Japan, where she tries to unravel the mysteries of the mind and of the heart. Schuyler writes with piercing intelligence and real insight into the complex worlds of literary translation and human relationships.” — Ellen Sussman, author of the New York Times bestselling novel, French Lessons, and the novel, The Paradise Guest House
An “Elaine’s Pick” — a favorite new book selected by Elaine Petrocelli, President of Book Passage, a bookstore in Corte Madera, California
Praise for The Painting
Finalist for the Northern California Book Award
Best Books of 2004 The Painting by Nina Schuyler (Algonquin Books; 299 pages; $23.95): “According to the tenets of Buddhism, life is suffering, and suffering arises inexorably from desire, from the act of wanting. In Nina Schuyler’s meditative first novel, The Painting, the interplay between want and need not only creates the thematic backbone of the book but also drives the story itself — the tale of the struggles of a young female painter living in Meiji-era Japan, and the life of the illegitimate daughter of a well-heeled Parisian during the Franco-Prussian War. Each of her characters is afflicted with his or her own particular form of suffering, and each, in turn, is likewise afflicted with the hope of bringing that suffering to an end.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Nina Schuyler makes a fearless debut with The Painting. Not only does Schuyler take on characters in 1869 Japan, she creates a parallel story of characters in 1870 France. And what’s more, each of the separate stories is equally compelling.” — MSNBC
“First and foremost: This is one of the best books I’ve read this year.” — Rocky Mountain News
Praise for How to Write Stunning Sentences
“Nina Schuyler’s How to Write Stunning Sentences is like a Kama Sutra for sentences: it describes the positions and passions of her artful love, and through sharp analyses and generous prompts suggests how you too, writer, may become such an artful lover… Read it and the pleasure will be yours.” — Aaron Shurin, author of King of Shadows and The Skin of Meaning
“Passionately intense and exquisitely precise, Nina Schuyler’s brilliant readings of gorgeously disparate sentences by a wide spectrum of innovative writers illuminate the subversive pleasures of suspension and subordination, the joys of complexity and extravagance, and the potent, piercing delights of language distilled to spare perfection.” — Melanie Rae Thon, author of Voice of the River, Silence & Song, and The 7th Man
Praise for Stunning Sentences: The Creative Writing Journal, with 80 Prompts from Beloved Authors to Improve Your Style
“Nina Schuyler’s book is a creative antidote for anyone experiencing stuckedness, malaise, bad news, the doldrums. And just as useful for those who aren’t feeling stuck but just want fresh, new ways to charge their writing. In her book you’ll find a host of stunning sentences and prompts for she’s a finder, she knows how to find the stunners, then shows you through specific examples how to bring forth your own great lines.” — Toni Mirosevich, author of Spell Heaven
“Stunning Sentences is simply wonderful. There are eighty magical prompts that author Nina Schuyler has carefully curated, providing writers a wide range of tips and techniques to try out. This workbook is a roadmap to hone skills and will give writers tools to effectively inject imagery and rhythm in their own work.” — Devi S. Laskar, author of Circa and The Atlas of Reds and Blues
