Description: "Twelve delightfully strange, haunting stories from the acclaimed, oracular author of Beautyland"--
Brief description: Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of Beautyland, Parakeet, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas, and the story collection Safe as Houses. She was the 2017 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellow in Cork, Ireland. She has received the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Mississippi Review Prize, and fellowships from MacDowell, Sewanee, and New York City's Center for Fiction, and her work has twice been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts. Her work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and Mississippi Review 30. She is the Ritvo-Slifka Writer-in-Residence at Yale University.
Review Quotes:
"My favorite [story] collection of 2025 . . . Bertino's writing here is electric and propulsive, while her command of genre is masterful: she paces her stories like a thriller, plays with language like a poet, and conjures worlds like Borges."
--Adam Morgan, Esquire
--Halimah Marcus, Electric Literature "[Exit Zero will] surprise you. And make you laugh. And sometimes devastate you. Sometimes all of the above . . . Everything [Bertino] writes is covered in a slight dusting of magic."
--Charles Yu, Bomb "There are original stories, there are unique sto-ries, and then there are Marie-Helene Bertino stories . . . [Exit Zero] contains a dozen gems . . . A must-read collection."
--Gabino Iglesias, Locus "Charming and strange . . . Luminous tales of haunting absurdity."
--Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books "Revelatory . . . The addition of a little magic in each story belies that these are stories about absences, separations, loneliness, and uncertainty. Readers of all kinds will find something to cherish among these gems."
--Jeff O'Neal, Book Riot "Stunning . . . The best of these stories tap into the same heartfelt sense of isolation that Bertino's Beautyland did. . . When Exit Zero is humming, it turns that sense of isolation into something hallucinatory, sad, and beatific."
--Tobias Carroll, Reactor "Exit Zero, like all of Marie-Helene Bertino's fiction, climb[s] to the rarest heights by combining intuition with emotional wisdom."
--The Brooklyn Rail "Exit Zero reveals everyday instances of magic via an expert blend of humor and melancholy."
--Greta Rainbow, Bustle "[Exit Zero cuts] at the core of what it means to be alive."
--Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's Bazaar "Bertino's way of looking at the world continues to dazzle."
--Sam Franzini, Our Culture "With winsome wildness capturing the incapturable, Bertino offers up marvels on every page."
--Annie Bostrom, Booklist "Stories that slide into the magical while staying determinedly real . . . Bertino's characters . . . will remind us of our neighbors, our friends, even ourselves as we navigate their worlds in Bertino's confident hands. Ardently whimsical, yet never centerless."
--Kirkus Reviews "There's a Denis Johnsonesque deadpan lurking in [Exit Zero]. And yet the book also has a spontaneous and intense energy . . . You feel changed . . . intoxicated, as if you expect something very different from reality after having tasted Bertino's version."
--Max Winter, On the Seawall "[A] potent and darkly funny collection . . . driven by energetic pacing, quick wit, and surprising twists. Bertino once again displays her formidable talent for the uncanny."
--Publishers Weekly