Description
Book SynopsisThe latest electrifying collection from acclaimed novelist and short story writer Adrianne Harun. Grand Price Winner, 2019 Eric Hoffer Book AwardIt's all about loss. Don't kid yourself. Even a simple game of catch is hinged on the moment the ball leaves the glove, the moment it returns. Don't even try to think this story or any other story is about something else. In Catch, Release, Adrianne Harun's second story collection, loss is the driver. But it's less the usual somber shadow-figure of grieving than an erratically interesting cousin, unmoored, even exhilarated, by the sudden flight into emptiness, the freedom of being neither here nor there. In this suspended state, anything might happenand it does. Harun's most realistic stories are suffused with mystery, while her more fantastic tales reveal startling truths within the commonplace. In diverse settings that include, among other places, a British Columbian island, a haunted Midwestern farmhouse, a London townhome, and a dement
Trade ReviewSure to satisfy discerning readers of emotionally wise, high-quality fiction.
—Joan Curbow,
BooklistAnimated by a fierce sense of longing, Harun's pieces expertly depict how individuals grapple with lost love, death, and uncertain futures. Each story exists within a carefully realized world—lit with detail like brilliant, bizarre snow globes—and, fueled by haunting prose, will remain gleaming in readers' minds. Masterful and varied.
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Kirkus ReviewsEach story creates unforgettable impressions and memorable lines in a microcosm illuminated by the beauty and complexity of human emotion. Overall, this collection is as it should be—deft, deliberate, dashing, delicious, and direct.
—Christopher Klim & the Eric Hoffer Book Award,
US Review of BooksTold in poised, often shimmering prose, these tales distress and confound . . . The larger, tragic landscape Harun sketches is acutely destabilizing, wonderfully inscrutable and, at moments, ravenously absurd.
—Mike Peed,
New York Times Book ReviewReading Harun's haunting and incandescent new story collection,
Catch, Release, is also like inhabiting a strange and surprising place, one where the unexpected is sneakily placed inside the seemingly mundane.
—Lee Conell,
Chapter 16Harun's prose sings like poetry, with lush descriptions and pacing that sweeps the reader along like a pleasant alcoholic buzz.
—Rebecca Cuthbert,
American Book ReviewThere's nothing too unusual about the short stories in Adrianne Harun's new collection except that they're excellent. Nearly every story is a wonderful achievement, a complete emotional world observed in tight prose and slightly, delightedly misanthropic characterization . . . Harun's stories are old-school rock and roll done really damn well. We should listen.
—Katharine Coldiron,
Kenyon ReviewTable of ContentsLost in the War of the Beautiful Lads
The Farmhouse Wife
My Sisters
Pearl Diving
Two Girls Off Quarry Road
Pink Cloud
My Witness
Swallow
Madame Ida
Temptation of the Tutelary
A Dead Man's Land
The New Arrival
Madhouse
Catch, Release
Acknowledgments
