CATAPULT
Selected by Ben Marcus as winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, Catapult follows Emily Fridlund’s acclaimed debut novel History of Wolves. Sometimes calculating, at other times bewildered, Catapult‘s characters orbit around each other, enacting a deeply human tragicomedy of wit, misunderstanding, and loss. With dexterous, atmospheric, and darkly comic prose, Fridlund conjures worlds where longing is open-ended, intentions misfire, and the line between comfort and cruelty is often difficult to discern. This is a gripping collection, unsettling as much in its familiarity as in its near-gothic strangeness.
Read our interview with the author on the Reading Group Choices blog!
Selected by Ben Marcus as winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, Catapult follows Emily Fridlund’s acclaimed debut novel History of Wolves. Sometimes calculating, at other times bewildered, Catapult‘s characters orbit around each other, enacting a deeply human tragicomedy of wit, misunderstanding, and loss. With dexterous, atmospheric, and darkly comic prose, Fridlund conjures worlds where longing is open-ended, intentions misfire, and the line between comfort and cruelty is often difficult to discern. This is a gripping collection, unsettling as much in its familiarity as in its near-gothic strangeness.
Read our interview with the author on the Reading Group Choices blog!
- Saranbande Books
- Paperback
- October 2017
- 240 Pages
- 9781946448057
Buy the Book
$16.95
About Emily Fridlund
Emily Fridlund grew up in Minnesota and currently resides in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Her fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, including Boston Review, Zyzzyva, Five Chapters, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. Fridlund’s first novel, History of Wolves (Atlantic Monthly Press), was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection and a #1 Indie Next pick.
Praise
Kirkus Reviews, “100 Best Fiction Books of 2017”
O, The Oprah Magazine, “Ten Titles to Pick Up Now”
W Magazine, “10 Books to Read Right Now”
Washington Post, “9 Short-Story Collections We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall”
Chicago Review of Books, “15 Must-Read Books This October”
Poets & Writers, “Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin”
Buzzfeed, “28 Exciting New Books You Need To Read This Fall”
The Masters Review, “17 Books We’re Looking Forward To This Year”
“Eleven stories of misshapen families and broken friendships disturb and unsettle. Fridlund follows History of Wolves (2017), her marvelous and preternaturally accomplished first novel, with a collection of jarring and polished short fiction. The craft is evident in the perfect titles and the observational acuity of the sentences. . . .Her stories evoke Flannery O’Connor’s masterly way with grotesquery but deviate in Fridlund’s contempt for faith. Bracing, often brilliant stories deliver a shock to the routine narratives we tell.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Here comes a powerhouse of a first story collection notable for its temerity and its skilled combination of humor and insight. Awarded the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction by Ben Marcus (who praised its ‘piercing’ wisdom and ‘destabilizing insight’), this is — seriously — a laugh-out-loud collection as wise as it is funny.”—The New York Times, “Other People’s Minds: Four New Story Collections”
“This powerhouse of a first collection . . . is notable for its deft mix of humor and insight.”—The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice, “7 New Books We Recommend This Week”
Interviews
Read our interview with Emily Fridlund on the Reading Group Choices blog!