Description: In the title story, a young man and his wife are intrigued and amused when a peculiar unknown aunt announces a surprise visit--only the old woman can't be traced on the family tree. In "What We Know About the Lost Aztec Children," the "normal" middle-class son of a former circus performer (the Armless Woman) must suddenly confront his mother's pain. In "It's Bad Luck to Die," a young woman discovers that her husband's loving tattoo creations make her feel at home in her skin for the first time.
Brief description:
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books, including The Hero of This Book, The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories five times, and have won three Pushcart Prizes, two National Magazine Awards, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.
Review Quotes:
"McCracken is a . . . robust, ferocious romantic who sees reality with all its chinks, twitches, and zits, and finds it beautiful." - Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love
"Impressive . . . elegantly written." - New York Times Book Review
"McCracken [has an] engaging voice, a sharp eye for those moments when the grotesque hides behind the unexceptional--and an ability to persuade us that what appears most unlikely is often most illuminating and, frequently, most true." - Francine Prose, Los Angeles Times
"Funny and heartbreaking.... A terrific book....You could gulp [these stories] like heart-candy." - The Boston Sunday Globe