Description
Book SynopsisThe stories collected in This Is Not the Tropics come from the geographic center of a divided nation, and its protagonists evoke a split personalityone half submerged in America's own diehard mythology, the other half searching to escape tradition.
Trade Review“[These stories] brim with timeless truths about love, insecurity, and the glue that holds relationships together. . . . Randolph gets each and every character just right.”—
Booklist“Ladette Randolph’s stories sink their teeth into the deep Nebraska Midwest the way that Flannery O’Connor tore into the heart of Georgia. There’s a wonderfully sly, deadpan sweetness at work here, so that it may take a moment to realize how odd and twisty the stories are. . . . These are beautifully crafted, beguiling stories: witty, wise, and wicked.”—Dan Chaon, author of
You Remind Me of Me“Ladette Randolph’s stories have the sly, subtle intensity of a snake gliding through grass. They sneak up on their characters and the reader alike, invoking humor, grace, and wisdom before pouncing on us with exhilarating epiphanies that are as dark and brutal as they are hopeful.”—Meghan Daum, author of
The Quality of Life Report“These are stories of compassion and surprising generosity, as characters who have been trapped find escape, who have been lonely find company, and who have endured loss face not sorrow, but transformation.”—Erin McGraw, author of
The Good Life: Stories“A clear-eyed portrait of the plains.”—
Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
What She Knows
A Member of the Family
The Boy in the Band Uniform
The Shouting Woman
Miss Kielbasa
It's Cheaper to Live in the Dark
Hyacinths
The Girls
The Picture in Her Dream
Billy
This Is Not the Tropics
After Canaan
The Sensitive Man
Dill
The Blue Room
