Ocean State Libraries

"From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica's vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways--often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound"--

"Norval's life has been, to put it lightly, difficult. Currently living home with his mother, the troubled young man is coming off alcohol-related struggles. So when he receives an unexpected letter from his estranged father requesting a visit, Norval catches a bus up to his dad's secluded and scenic waterfront home. Maybe reconnecting with his father will give Norval the emotional fulfillment he's been lacking. Before long, though, he notices something...

Dahlia has started a new life. She is recently separated from her husband, has a new job and a new apartment, she's determined to put her estranged relationship behind her and devote herself to raising her daughter, Ceci. Then when her strained separation turns into a bitter custody battle, her situation takes a turn for the worse. Her new apartment seems to have a life of its own. Mysterious noises, persistent leaks of dark water, and strange happenings...

"A hippopotamus walks through the forest, growing increasingly depressed as one animal after another confesses that she looks ridiculous because she lacks a horn like a rhinoceros." --

With Music Through the Floor, Pushcart Prize winner and former Wallace Stegner Fellow Eric Puchner makes an extraordinary debut: a collection of nine unforgettable stories -- strikingly original, fiercely funny, and quietly heartbreaking -- portraying a group of cultural misfits attempting to navigate mainstream America. Lost, teetering on the edge of normalcy, Puchner's characters seek to define themselves in a frequently absurd and hostile world...

"A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children"--

"A woman returns to the home of her estranged domineering father to face family secrets of the past--and present"--Provided by the publisher.

"At a busy intersection on a crammed city hillside, an overworked book editor looks up long enough to watch a trio of houses go up in flames. Once the smoke clears, he becomes increasingly concerned by what he sees out his windows and starts asking questions he never bothered with before: Is the encampment in the park responsible for the fires--or are his new upscale neighbors somehow to blame? Has the man upstairs even bothered to notice, or is his...

"Preeminent illustrator Barry Moser renders the memories of his youth--in luminous drawings and candid prose--on his quest to understand how he and his identically raised brother could have become such very different men. Barry and Tommy Moser were born of the same parents, were raised in the same small Tennessee community where they slept in the same bedroom and were poisoned by their family's deep racism and anti-Semitism. But as they grew older,...