The Brutal Language of Love: Stories - Hardcover

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. 20,000 first printing.

st sentences of these nine stunning stories, Alicia Erian has you firmly in her grasp. 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. In “Lass,” a new wife with a history of bad decisions finds herself powerfully drawn to another man — her father-in-law.

Alicia Erian explores that peculiar part of the psyche and the complications of the heart that make you do things when you know better. The powerful, unsettling, deeply resonant stories in The Brutal Language of Love mark the emergence of a major new talent.