Hall of Small Mammals: Stories
Books / Hardcover
Books › Fiction › Short Stories (single author)
ISBN: 1594632529 / Publisher: Riverhead Books, January 2015
A short story collection features an unforgettable cast of characters who are struggling to understand the absurdity and the magnitude of what it means to exist in a family and in the world.
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Praise forHall Of Small Mammals"We're in the realm of the uncertain here, immersed in a view of life that teeters on the edge of parable as an organizing principle for this amazing collection of stories about the possible, the probable, the unknown, the ridiculous, the astonishing, the embarrassing, and also the just plain heartbreaking awkwardness of all kinds of hope and yearning, as we read about life lived in an echo chamber of the past that is now moving rocketlike into the future. It's a brilliant group of stories fueled by its inherent metaphors. Thomas Pierce has a delicate, shaping presence in all these stories, which are sure to be talked about, admired, and paraphrased nervously, because they take us out of the comfort of our known world."---Ann Beattie"It's thrilling to find a writer with an imagination as wild and wonderful as Thomas Pierce. It's even more impressive to see how Pierce builds upon the initial conceit of his stories, the way he follows the thread of that weirdness toward something utterly unique and altogether human. This is a fantastic, rewarding book of stories."---Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and The Family Fang"This is a book that feels adventurous in scope, but is classically and skillfully wrought, even as it throws us into a future of genetic experimentation, loss, and change. Humorous, absurd, and smart, Pierce's collection doesn't just give us the delicate, dangerous future, but also explores what it means to be a flawed, feeling human living within it--as the keeper of a resurrected species, a physicist with an active dream life, a bone collector. A book that rewards and earns deep and repeated reading."---Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Almost Famous Women and Birds of a Lesser Paradise"Thomas Pierce describes a world we may soon inhabit, where science advances but mystery endures. Extinct species are revived on TV, and near-extinct species are the local zoo's sellout draw; a new infectious disease defies attempts to identify or contain it, and physicists everywhere quest to identify a theoretical entity called the daisy particle. In this world, fractured families and lost souls--Pierce's deeper interests--are the norm. Wry, wrenching, and elegant."---Brian Kimberling, author of Snapper
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