Zero db: And Other Stories (Unabridged‪)‬

Madison Smartt Bell’s celebrated debut story collection about the daily struggles of life in America.

The characters in this captivating collection of stories are linked by imprisonment in desperate circumstances and the currents of history that carry them along. Praised for its clarity of voice and vision, Zero db and Other Stories begins with a grim tour of the Deep South that includes a visit to a Tennessee slaughter yard, an unflinching look at the underbelly of the Northeast, and even a trip back in time to the Great Plains of the 19th century and the confluence of events leading up to the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Engrossing and brimming with insight, Bell’s early stories are remarkable for their ambition of scope and the author’s deft rendering of human diversity.