On Kris Vervaecke

"The Quarrel" is a brilliantly written, searing glimpse into the life of Staszek Czyzowski, Polish survivor of World War II camps, and his ruined wife, Kasia. The writer's exquisite portrait of this stubborn, furious man, rendered without a bit of sentimentality, is so devastating it takes my breath away each time I reread it. The story is especially compelling in its understanding of human love and pity, basic and untempered by romanticism.

I cannot praise "The Quarrel" highly enough. I have enormous admiration for this story, for its clear-sighted, stark emotional intelligence and for its prose, which is beautiful and under absolute control.

—Lan Samantha Chang, author of Hunger: A Novella and Stories, and a forthcoming novel, Sanctuary. She teaches at the Warren Wilson M.F.A. Program for Writers and at Harvard University.