The Brutal Language of Love: Stories - Softcover

A debut collection of nine stories examines how love and emotion can make an individual do things that might be considered out of character or against one's personal ethics in such works as "Alcatraz," "Almonds and Cherries," and "Lass," about a newlywed bride who finds herself drawn to her father-in-law. A first collection. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.

, whose work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Zoetrope, and Nerve, casts aside traditional notions of right and wrong and conjures up situations that are at once familiar and unsettling. Her characters—flawed, brave, disarming, affectionate—inhabit the not-so-very-wide space between a good intention and a bad outcome. In “Alcatraz,” we meet a middle-school spelling champion who spends her afternoons taking baths with the boy next door. In “Almonds and Cherries,” a young woman turns an unexpectedly arousing bra-shopping experience into a short film, with ramifications for everyone around her. These surprising, provocative, and deeply resonant stories mark the emergence of a major new talent.