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Sunday, October 19, 2014

Pre Pub Book Buzz: Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Morning, all. I'm a day late to this party.

As you all know, I'm a sucker for dark fiction. I'm also a sucker for short fiction, which makes Kelly Link's upcoming collection, Get In Trouble, the book I'm most looking forward to this week!

Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as "the most darkly playful voice in American fiction"; by Neil Gaiman as "a national treasure"; and by Karen Russell as "Franz Kafka with a better understanding of ladies' footwear and bad first dates." Now Kelly Link's eagerly awaited new collection--her first for adult readers in a decade--proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have. 

Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The eight exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In "The Summer People," a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In "I Can See Right Through You," a onetime teen idol takes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In "The New Boyfriend," a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll. 

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, "The Wizard of Oz, " superheroes, the Pyramids . . . These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty--and the hidden strengths--of human beings. In "Get in Trouble, "this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.

If I succeed in getting just one reader turned onto shorts, I will be a truly happy girl. But hopefully more than one reader will find this one appealing!

Get in Trouble is due out from Random House in February.

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