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Stories no one hopes are about them / by A.J. Bermudez.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Iowa short fiction awardPublisher: Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, [2022]Description: 137 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781609388638
  • 1609388631
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
The real India -- Obscure trivia of the Antarctic -- Octopus -- Casualty -- Bottle girl -- Ori dreams of a tree -- All the places you will never be again -- Insertion -- Cain vs. Cain -- The body electric -- The lady will pay for everything -- Eating the leaves -- Mnemophobe -- Orphan type -- Lacquer -- The train speaks -- Picking the wound -- Totenhaus -- Retrospect -- Year of the snake.
Awards:
  • Iowa short fiction award, 2022.
Summary: "A rogue assistant orchestrates a spectacular art world con in northern India. A custodian-turned-thief absconds to Antarctica while awaiting her trial. A family's underwater vacation is subverted by a murderous school of fish. In a series of 20 short fictions, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them takes the reader to the ends of the earth, from the ocean floor to the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, from an 18th-century German "house of the dead" to death row at Sing Sing to a party at the local zoo. We're guided by cocktail servers, serial killers, and theme park princesses. Many of these characters--like us--should probably be elsewhere. At once playfully dark and slyly hopeful, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them explores convergences of power, privilege, and place. Characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá--neither from here nor there--straddle competing worlds, disrupt paradigms, and transition from objects of other people's stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own. Narratives of humanity and environment entwine, with nuanced themes of colonization, queerness, and evolution at the forefront. Big things happen in this collection: wars, revelations, ecological catastrophes, curses, crimes. But it's also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents of quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgressing the familiar. With delicate wit, a breakneck pace, and a featherweight boxing style of nimble, merciless prose, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them is about the places and personhoods we inhabit, including the places and people we probably shouldn't be. Each story touches on an undeniable past and a possible future: a glimpse of who we are and what we might become."-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction BERMUDEZ A. J. Available 33111010919898
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

2023 Lammy Award for Bisexual Fiction, shortlist



At once playfully dark and slyly hopeful, Stories No One Hopes Are about Them explores convergences of power, privilege, and place. Characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá--neither from here nor there--straddle competing worlds, disrupt paradigms, and transition from objects of other people's stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own. Narratives of humanity and environment entwine with nuanced themes of colonization, queerness, and evolution at the forefront. Big things happen in this collection. But it's also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents that quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgress the familiar.

Short stories.

Includes bibliographical references.

The real India -- Obscure trivia of the Antarctic -- Octopus -- Casualty -- Bottle girl -- Ori dreams of a tree -- All the places you will never be again -- Insertion -- Cain vs. Cain -- The body electric -- The lady will pay for everything -- Eating the leaves -- Mnemophobe -- Orphan type -- Lacquer -- The train speaks -- Picking the wound -- Totenhaus -- Retrospect -- Year of the snake.

"A rogue assistant orchestrates a spectacular art world con in northern India. A custodian-turned-thief absconds to Antarctica while awaiting her trial. A family's underwater vacation is subverted by a murderous school of fish. In a series of 20 short fictions, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them takes the reader to the ends of the earth, from the ocean floor to the mountains of Himachal Pradesh, from an 18th-century German "house of the dead" to death row at Sing Sing to a party at the local zoo. We're guided by cocktail servers, serial killers, and theme park princesses. Many of these characters--like us--should probably be elsewhere. At once playfully dark and slyly hopeful, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them explores convergences of power, privilege, and place. Characters who are ni de aquí, ni de allá--neither from here nor there--straddle competing worlds, disrupt paradigms, and transition from objects of other people's stories to active subjects and protagonists of their own. Narratives of humanity and environment entwine, with nuanced themes of colonization, queerness, and evolution at the forefront. Big things happen in this collection: wars, revelations, ecological catastrophes, curses, crimes. But it's also a collection of small intimacies: misremembered names, chipped teeth, and private rituals; unexpected alliances and barely touched knees beneath uniform skirts; minutiae of the natural world; incidents of quietly, achingly, and delightfully transgressing the familiar. With delicate wit, a breakneck pace, and a featherweight boxing style of nimble, merciless prose, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them is about the places and personhoods we inhabit, including the places and people we probably shouldn't be. Each story touches on an undeniable past and a possible future: a glimpse of who we are and what we might become."-- Provided by publisher.

Iowa short fiction award, 2022.

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