Last Day on Earth
Stories
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the author of the Oprah Book Club Pick Dream State, a riveting and profoundly moving story collection by a writer “uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life” (Los Angeles Times).
A boy on the edge of adolescence fears his mother might be a robot; a psychotically depressed woman is entrusted with taking her niece and nephew trick-or-treating; a reluctant dad brings his baby to a debaucherous party; a teenage boy tries to prevent his mother from putting his estranged father’s dogs to sleep. Ranging from a youth arts camp to an aging punk band’s reunion tour, from a dystopian future where parents no longer exist to a ferociously independent bookstore, Last Day on Earth revolves around the endlessly complex, frequently surreal system that is family.
Eric Puchner, hailed as “technically gifted and emotionally insightful” (The New York Times Book Review), and someone who “puts the story back in short story” (San Francisco Chronicle), delivers a gloriously original, utterly memorable collection that evokes both the comedy and tragedy of our lifelong endeavor to come of age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ray Bradbury meets Tom Perrotta in the new collection by Puchner (Model Home), which blends science fiction with the all-too-real suburban horrors of deadbeat dads, unsupervised teens, and the onset of mental illness. In the instant classic "Beautiful Monsters," a brother and sister rearing themselves in a world where parents are extinct encounter their first adult. Hints of fantasy turn out to be something more nefarious in pieces such as "Mothership," in which a troubled woman finds her identity inexplicably fusing with her sister's when she takes her own niece and nephew trick-or-treating; "Right This Instant," in which an emotionally fragile boy becomes convinced his mother is a robot; and "Expression," in which a precocious wannabe writer learns a lesson from the prowler stalking his arts camp. Then there are the bleakest stories, including "Heavenland," in which a young father attending a coke party refuses to let his infant ruin his fun, and the title story, in which a harried single mom gives her son's German shorthairs a 48-hour ultimatum. Other tales feature aging punk rockers, vindictive divorc es, and ready-to-snap bookstore employees, completing Puchner's composite of everyday desperation.
