Whooping it Up in the Uncanny Valley

In her debut collection of short fiction, Jenn Shreve explores the uncanny in every day life, where truth is stranger than fiction and humanity and artifice collide in unpredictable ways. A middle-aged man wakes up to find himself living in a nightmare straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog. A window finds herself obsessively tracking the satellite that carries her husband's remains. A caretaker feels more affection for the crash-test dummies in his charge than his own family, and a nurse in a plastic surgery recovery ward falls in love with one of her patients. A terrifying flu requires that all the dogs in New York City be euthanized. And when a man's car hits a wheelchair, it sparks a modern-day stoning in the streets of a liberal northern California town. Often funny, always poignant, the unforgettable characters, haunting voices, and surprising situations will stay with you a long time.