She Is Haunted
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3.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
I know lots of things now that I'm dead. Peter from Apartment Two has a spastic bladder. My former boss Morgan keeps her toenails in a gold jewellery box. My brother and his wife are trying for a baby. I always excuse myself before things get too heated.
I don't know much about my mother yet. I am waiting for grief to catch her, but she mostly seems ashamed-of her body, of what it made.
A mother cuts her daughter's hair because her own starts falling out. A woman leaves her boyfriend because he reminds her of a corpse; another undergoes brain surgery to try to live more comfortably in higher temperatures. A widow physically transforms into her husband so that she does not have to grieve.
In She Is Haunted, these renditions of the author search for recognition and connection, and, more than anything else, small moments of empathy. But in what world will she move beyond her haunted past and find compassion for herself?
With piercing insights into transnational Asian identity, intergenerational trauma and grief, the dynamics of mother-daughter relationships, the inexplicable oddities of female friendship, and the love of a good dog, Paige Clark has crafted an exquisite, moving and sophisticated debut work of fiction. Full of wit and humour, She Is Haunted announces an entrancing new literary voice as contemporary as it is unique.
'The real meets the ethereal here and becomes something all its own. Clark is the best new writer in Australia and this book is like nothing else.' Robert Lukins, author of The Everlasting Sunday
'The stories in She is Haunted grapple with a mix of timeless human problems and uniquely contemporary dilemmas: grief, illness, identity, and heartbreak, but also who gets custody of the dog after a break-up, bureaucratic responses to deeply personal relationship issues, and the politics of food. Paige Clark writes with wit, warmth and nuance, using precise, playful language, giving us a collection of (sometimes embarrassingly) relatable characters, sneaky insights and surprising bursts of joy.' Emily Maguire, author of Love Objects and An Isolated Incident
'Paige Clark's stories contain worlds within pages. Like Carmen Maria Machado, she takes ideas and runs with them into strange, often uneasy places. From the ordinary to the bizarre, these compelling stories reveal biting truths about race, relationships and life.' Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, writer and critic
'A stunning collection of short stories about identity, connection and trying to make sense of our modern world. Paige Clark is a star.' Hannah-Rose Yee, journalist and writer
'A wondrous spirit animates SHE IS HAUNTED. In sentences of bracing snap and clarity, Clark's stories delight and amuse, even as they expose tender truths and secrets. An astonishing debut.' Wells Tower, author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In turns devastating and hilarious, Clark's exceptional debut collection cuts right to the emotional core of its characters and their conflicts in stories that examine Asian identity, familial relationships, climate anxiety, and gender with an astonishing sense of nuance and clarity. In "Lie-in," an injured ballerina uses her time off to learn Cantonese while her husband dances in an international production of Don Quixote with a new beautiful female lead. In "A Woman in Love," a recently divorced woman plots to steal her pet dog from her ex-husband, reflecting on the question of "when does a dog become your dog?" A woman and her partner undergo brain surgery to change their body temperatures in "Amygdala" to contend with the Earth's rising temperatures. In "Private Eating," a Chinese woman lies about being a vegetarian to an anesthesiologist whom she has recently started dating (he's judgmental of meat eaters, but otherwise seems like a catch). In the title story, the ghost of a woman who recently died from cancer befriends Neil Armstrong, haunts her loved ones, and reckons with the cruel joke of death. With a striking style, Clark consistently hits her mark, sticking each landing with breathtaking poignancy. This will not disappoint.
