Fox Tooth Heart
These invigorating stories are populated with brilliantly conflicted characters who, no matter how hard they try, just can't seem to find -- or face up to -- what their lives are sorely missing. From the Everglades to the Ozarks, these men and women are adrift, crashing up against the rude, punishing confines of various hard-luck landscapes. While his characters might be lost, McManus is anything but, using language that is refreshingly precise. He doesn't have time to waste on preciousness -- he's got stories to tell.
Description
"A phenomenal talent blazing up suddenly on the horizon. . . . precise, brilliant language that evokes without ever having to explain. . . . His transcendent vision gives us devastating glimpses."--Elle
"John McManus writes visceral prose that explodes within the tight boundaries of the short story. These narratives possess a graceful internal logic and feature a wide range of gritty characters rebelling against an indifferent and often brutal world."--Bookforum
"The stories in John McManus's Born on a Train are powered by radiant prose."--Vanity Fair
John McManus's long awaited short story collection encompasses the geographic limits of America, from trailers hidden in deep Southern woods to an Arkansas ranch converted into an elephant refuge. His lost-soul characters reel precariously between common anxiety and drug-enhanced paranoia, sober reality and fearsome hallucination. These nine masterpieces of twisted humor and pathos re-establish McManus as one of the most bracing voices of our time.
John McManus is the author of the novel Bitter Milk and the short story collections Born on a Train and Stop Breakin Down, all published by Picador. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, American Short Fiction, The Oxford American, The Literary Review, Harvard Review, and many other places. He is the youngest-ever recipient of the Whiting Award.
About the Author
John McManus is the author of the novel Bitter Milk and the short story collections Born on a Train and Stop Breakin Down, all published by Picador. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, American Short Fiction, The Oxford American, The Literary Review, Harvard Review, and many others. He is the youngest-ever recipient of the Whiting Award.