All the Names They Used for God: Stories

Authors: Sachdeva, Anjali
Lexile: 1010,
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
BISAC/Subject: FIC019000, FIC029000, FIC061000
ISBN: 9780525508670, Related ISBNs: 0399593004, 0525508678, 0525508686, 0525587497, 0525587500
Classification: Non-Fiction
Number of pages: 288,
Audience: General/trade
Synopsis: “One of the best collections I’ve ever read. Every single story is a standout.”—Roxane Gay

WINNER OF THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE • LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Refinery29 BookRiot


“Fuses science, myth, and imagination into a dark and gorgeous series of questions about our current predicaments.”­—Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See

A dystopian tale about genetically modified septuplets who are struck by a mysterious illness; a love story about a man bewitched by a mermaid; a stirring imagining of the lives of Nigerian schoolgirls in the aftermath of a Boko Haram kidnapping. The stories in All the Names They Used for God break down genre barriers—from science fiction to American Gothic to magical realism to horror—and are united by each character’s brutal struggle with fate. Like many of us, the characters in this collection are in pursuit of the sublime. Along the way, they must navigate the borderland between salvation and destruction.

NAMED A MUST-READ BOOK BY Harper’s Bazaar • Entertainment Weekly • AM New York Reading Women AND A TOP READ BY Elle • Fast Company • The Christian Science Monitor • Bustle • Shondaland • Popsugar • Refinery29  • Bookish • Newsday • The Millions • Asian American Writers’ Workshop • HelloGiggles

“Strange and wonderful . . . delightfully unexpected.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Completing one [story] is like having lived an entire life, and then being born, breathless, into another.”—Carmen Maria Machado

“Captivating.”—NPR

“Gripping.”Los Angeles Review of Books

“[A] remarkable debut . . . Sachdeva is seemingly fearless and her talent limitless.”AM New York 

“This phenomenal debut short-story collection is filled with stories that bring the otherworldly to life and examine the strangeness of humanity.”Bustle 

“So rich they read like dreams . . . They are enormous stories, not in length but in ambition, each an entirely new, unsparing world. Beautiful, draining—and entirely unforgettable.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Sign up for our literacy platform for reading at home

LightSail includes up to 6,000 high interest, Lexile aligned book titles with every student subscription. Other titles are available for individual purchase.

Watch the power of

Lightsail in action

×

SUPPORT GROWING READERS

Immediately Engage Students
Immediately Engage Students
Simple intuitive design has classrooms reading within minutes.
Exponentially Grow Reading Time
Exponentially Grow Reading Time
Students love the LightSail experience and naturally spend more time reading.
Accelerate Literacy Development
Accelerate Literacy Development
Students reading 25 minutes a day on LightSail are seeing 2+ years of Lexile growth in a single year.

LightSail Education is a comprehensive Lexile and standards-aligned, literacy platform and digital e-book library. Including multimodal learning functionality and featuring books from leading publishers, LightSail holistically assesses and nurtures each student on their reading and writing-to-learn journey, throughout elementary, middle, and high school.

*LightSail offers a 2,000 or a 6,000 title bundle with its student subscriptions. Other titles are available for individual purchase.