This memoir of being raised on a commune in the late 1960s and early 1970s is "a fascinating, evenhanded view of counterculture life" ( Booklist).Sandra Eugster's idealistic, headstrong mother created a commune in rural Virginia that came to be known as Nethers, and it was here that Sandra spent much of her childhood. This unique, honest memoir strives to accurately depict communal living in all its complexities. An array of colorful characters drifted into...

"Heartbreakingly detailed . . . vibrant—and vital" prize-winning stories by an Australian contributor to The New Yorker ( Entertainment Weekly).In this "coolly exact . . . sharp, evocative and often poetic" collection of award-winning short fiction, Cate Kennedy daringly travels to the deepest depths of the human psyche to explore the collision between simmering inner lives, the cold outside world, and the hidden motivations that propel u...

"Lara Williams makes a bold debut with this razor-sharp, magnificently humane story collection." — Entertainment WeeklyShe finds herself single, twenty-nine, partially-employed, and about a half a stone overweight. Roller dexter of eligible friends rattling thin. Thirties breathing down her neck like an inappropriate uncle. She jogs. Looks good in turquoise. Finds herself punctuating gas "better out than in!" patting her stomach like a department store ...

In a spine-tingling new collection, the unique and wickedly funny Helen Phillips offers an idiosyncratic series of "what-ifs" about our fragile human conditionWhat if you knew the exact date of your death? What if your perfect hermaphrodite match existed on another planet? What if your city was filled with doppelgangers of you?In these remarkably inventive stories Helen Phillips' characters search for solutions to the problem of survival in an irrational, i...

“In The Ruined House a ‘small harmless modicum of vanity’ turns into an apocalyptic bonfire. Shot through with humor and mystery and insight, Ruby Namdar's wonderful first novel examines how the real and the unreal merge. It's a daring study of madness, masculinity, myth-making and the human fragility that emerges in the mix."—Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World SpinWinner of the Sapir Prize, Isr...

Set in the eponymous botanic garden in London on a hot July day, the narrative gives brief glimpses of four groups of people as they pass by a flowerbed. The story begins with a description of the oval-shaped flowerbed. Woolf mixes the colors of the petals of the flowers, floating to the ground, with the seemingly random movements of the visitors, which she likens to the apparently irregular movements of butterflies.

Each story in this series offers a poignant glimpse of family life – the ties we cling to; the ties we try to sever; and the ties that make us who we are. Told from a myriad of perspectives, from a dazzling array of some of the finest short story writers of our generation (including Jhumpa Lahiri, George Saunders, Jon McGregor and Elizabeth Gilbert), Family Snapshots gives us a fresh, empathetic and moving insight into the meaning of family. The Lie is taken from T. C. Boyle's beg...

When one door closes, another opens, or so they say. So why am I sitting behind a locked door in the laundry room, wondering how I got here? When is that other door going to open? And what will I find behind it?

“Ingenious, sensual, gleeful. . . . It demands of its readers only imagination, and rewards them with hilarity, terror, and marvels.”—Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless BrooklynNora and Blanche are cojoined twins. Nora, the dominant twin, thirsts for love and adventure, while Blanche has been asleep for nearly 30 years. Determined to shed herself of her her sister’s dead weight, Nora leaves for London in search of the mysterious Unity Foundation, which promises to make two one.

Solitaire is the groundbreaking memoir of a young woman growing up in the 1970s and her triumph over anorexia nervosa.

In the middle of all the concrete and pavement and downright busy-ness that calls itself Manhattan sits a place of refuge where city people can come and experience a little bit of countryside. Where dogs and children run and play. Where even a monster can find a slice of serenity and possibly even a friend. Friendship comes in all shapes and sizes.So does Evil.The outcasts of Society, the freaks and the monsters, shamed and beaten into submission, know that Good doesn't alw...

This work by Diane Williams delves into the strange relationships of men and women. From marital betrayal to spousal abuse and unrelenting desire, Williams illuminates the lives of her characters in prose as sparse and stark as it is beautiful. These stories are as short as prose poems and as complex as novels. In them, meanings remain ambiguous and consequences seem uncertain. In the novella “On Sexual Strength” she describes the intense and sometimes strange relationship between two neig...