A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. One of Library
Journal's Best Short Story Collections of 2019. One of Vol. 1
Brooklyn and Tor.com's Books to Read in February.
"Sharp, haunting . . . [Meijer] writes wonderfully of the trap of
the self, with its impossible prisons of circumstance and identity, not
to mention the perversity of being buried alive, alone, inside a body."
--Merritt Tierce, The New York Times Book Review
From the author of Heartbreaker, a disquieting collection tracing
the destructive consequences of the desire for connection
A man, forgotten by the world, takes care of his deaf brother while
euthanizing dogs for a living. A stepbrother so desperately wants to
become his stepsibling that he rapes his girlfriend. In Maryse Meijer's
decidedly dark and searingly honest collection Rag, the desperate
human desire for connection slips into a realm that approximates horror.
Meijer's explosive debut collection, Heartbreaker, reinvented
sexualized and romantic taboos, holding nothing back. In Rag, Meijer's
fearless follow-up, she shifts her focus to the dark heart of intimacies
of all kinds, and the ways in which isolated people's yearning for
community can breed violence, danger, and madness. With unparalleled
precision, Meijer spins stories that leave you troubled and slightly
shaken by her uncanny ability to elicit empathy for society's most
marginalized people.
