Life Among the Terranauts

From the rising star and author of the "marvelous" (Wall Street Journal), "enthralling" (New York Times Book Review), and "beautiful" (Washington Post) debut novel The Vexations comes an exciting new story collection for fans of George Saunders and Karen Russell that moves boldly between the real and the surreal. Following her "lyrical and captivating" (Los Angeles Review of Books) first novel, Caitlin Horrocks returns with a much-anticipated second collection of short stories. In her signature, genre-defying style, she explodes our notions of what a story can do and where it can take us. Life Among the Terranauts demonstrates all the energy and inventiveness that won admirers for Horrocks's first collection. In "The Sleep," chosen by Geraldine Brooks for Best American Short Stories, residents of a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula decide to hibernate through the bitter winters. In the Saunders-esque title story, half a dozen people move into an experimental biodome known as NovaTerra, only to discover, in terrifying fashion, that a new environment doesn't necessarily mean a fresh start or a better life. And in "Sun City," published in The New Yorker, a young woman meets her grandmother's roommate in the wake of her death and attempts to solve the mystery of whether the two women were lovers. With a startling range of storytelling, Horrocks once again dazzles readers in these absorbing depictions of the real and surreal landscapes of contemporary life. Life Among the Terranauts cements her reputation as one of the premier young writers of our time.