LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZEAt the bitter end of the 1960s, after surviving multiple assassination attempts, President John F. Kennedy is entering his third term in office. The Vietnam War rages on, and the president has created a vast federal agency, the Psych Corps, dedicated to maintaining the nation’s mental hygiene by any means necessary. Soldiers returning from the war have their battlefield traumas “enfolded”**—wiped from their memories throug...

The Spot is an old blacksmith shed in which three men tweeze apart the intricacies of a botched bank robbery.The Spot is a park on the Hudson River, where two lovers sense their affair is about to come to an end.The Spot is at the bottom of Niagara Falls, where the body of a young girl floats as if caught in the currents of her own tragic story.The Spot is in the ear of a Manhattan madman plagued by a noisy upstairs neighbor .The Spot is a suburban hospital ...

An extraordinary collection of short stories from an author who is set to become one of America’s leading literary voices.In the tradition of Raymond Carver or Tobias Wolff, these are all-encompassing stories of the American psyche, of love and loss and of the landscape and its people.A goldfish circles in its bowl, refusing to die, becoming the silent focus of a difficult family life; a pianist loses his talents as he is forced to question the meaning of love and commitmen...

Finalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates PrizeA new collection of stories by David Means, a visionary "master of the form" (The Observer).Two nurses meet in the hospital parking lot to share a cigarette. They flirt and imagine a future together. They tell stories of patients lost and patients saved, of the darkest corners of human suffering and the luminous moments that break through, even here, in the shadow of death.In Dav...

"Poetic, insightful, and deeply moving. David Means is one of my very favorite writers." —Tara Westover, author of EducatedFollowing the publication of his widely acclaimed, Man Booker-nominated novel Hystopia, David Means here returns to his signature form: the short story. Thanks to his four previous story collections, Means has won himself an international reputation as one of the most innovative short fiction writers working today: an "establi...

Winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in short fiction, selected by David Means.Winner of the University of Nevada’s Silver Pen Award."Mullins writes about these journeys, and about sex and the desert, with a wonderful, edgy lucidity. Greetings from Below is a remarkable debut."Margot LiveseyWhat would have become of Nick Adams if he'd been born along the ragged edges of a new American city, one with more churches per capita ...

Upon its publication, Assorted Fire Events won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and received tremendous critical praise. Ranging across America, taking in a breathtaking array of voices and experiences, this story collection now stands as one of the finest of our time.

"Poetic, insightful, and deeply moving. David Means is one of my very favorite writers." —Tara Westover, author of EducatedFollowing the publication of his widely acclaimed, Man Booker-nominated novel Hystopia, David Means here returns to his signature form: the short story. Thanks to his four previous story collections, Means has won himself an international reputation as one of the most innovative short fiction writers working today: an “establi...

From one of Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists comes Certain American States, whose insightful and lonely stories beg you to discover the emotional universes hiding at their cores.The winner of a Whiting Award, Catherine Lacey brings her narrative mastery to Certain American States, her first collection of short stories. As with her acclaimed novels Nobody Is Ever Missing and The Answers, she gives life to a group of subtly comple...

From "a dazzling new voice in American fiction" (Jennifer Egan), a finely drawn portrait of American privilege and a subtle exploration of class, race, and tradition.St. James is an exclusive New England boarding school known for grooming generations of leaders. Ben Weeks is a true insider -- his ancestors helped found St. James, his older brother taught him all the slang, and he's just won a national championship in squash.But after fourteen long years of ...

""In this extraordinary novel, Castleberry brilliantly hopscotches from person to person, from era to era, while somehow making all this fancy footwork look effortless and essential."" - Jenny Offill, author of Department of Speculation and WeatherA luminous debut novel chronicling the eerily intersecting lives of a series of American dreamers whose unforeseen links reveal the divided heart of a haunted nation—and the battered grace that m...

F*ckface is a brassy, bighearted debut collection of twelve short stories about rurality, corpses, honeybee collapse, and illicit sex in post-coal Appalachia.The twelve stories in this knockout collection—some comedic, some tragic, many both at once—examine the interdependence between rural denizens and their environment.A young girl, desperate for a way out of her small town, finds support in an unlikely place. A ranger working along the Blue Ridg...