The highly anticipated new book of short fiction from the O. Henry
Prize winner Alexander MacLeod--a magnificent collection about
the needs, temptations, and tensions that exist just beneath the
surface of our lives.
Startling, suspenseful, and deeply humane, yet alert to the undertow of
our darker instincts, the eight stories in Animal Person illuminate
what it means to exist in the perilous space between desire and action,
and to have your faith in what you hold true buckle and give way.
A petty argument between two sisters is interrupted by an unexpected
visitor. Adjoining motel rooms connect a family on the brink of a new
life with a criminal whose legacy will haunt them for years to come. A
connoisseur of other people's secrets is undone by what he finds in a
piece of lost luggage. In the wake of a tragic accident, a young man
must contend with what is owed to the living and to the dead. And in the
O. Henry Prize-winning story "Lagomorph," a man's relationship with his
family's long-lived pet rabbit opens up to become a profound exploration
of how a marriage fractures.
Muscular and tender, beautifully crafted, and alive with an elemental
power, these stories explore the struggle for meaning and connection in
an age when many of us feel cut off from so much, not least ourselves.
This is a collection that beats with raw emotion and shimmers with the
complexity of our shared human experience, and it confirms Alexander
MacLeod's reputation as a modern master of the short story.
