Description

"Undefinable and mysterious… Violence threads like blood through these stories."
– Joan Connor; author, History Lessons, We Who Live Apart

Pigs soundtrack a boy's first dance with death on a desolate farm. Bumps in the night bring solace to a young widow looking to start over. A remote worker faces the grim reality of nine-to-five in the office. In his first collection, Strunk paints vivid portraits of characters in crisis, riding the genre line tight enough that you might not know which side you're on: sex and the tarot, childhood lessons and middle-aged rebirth, even a grisly glimpse at the end of the world from the top of the Hollywood Hills. Against the backdrop of small towns and big cities alike, the horrors – and victories – in these stories are undeniably human.

"Clean and sharp… [It's] Tarantino with the blood and anger, David Lynch with the throbbing psychosis, and Oscar Wilde with the mayhem and humanism."
– Richard Horan; author, Goose Music, Seeds