By Kelly Luce
Set in Japan, these stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love.
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
Paperback: 9780989275910
eBook: 9781941920978
Description
Set in Japan, Luce’s playful, tender stories—reminiscent of Haruki Murakami and Aimee Bender—tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love. The award-winning narratives in this mesmerizing debut trace the lives of ex-pats, artists, and outsiders as they seek to find their place in the world. Hana Sasaki beguiles and surprises: stories include an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and a most unusual kind of sex reassignment.
Biographical Note
Kelly Luce grew up in Brookfield, Illinois. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in cognitive science, she moved to Japan, where she lived and worked for three years. Her work has been recognized by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale Foundation, the Kerouac Project, and Jentel Arts, and has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Crazyhorse, The Kenyon Review, and The Southern Review. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and Austin, Texas, where she is a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. This is her first book.
Reviews
“Let us all now append one more syllable to the list of the most acrobatic imaginations in contemporary American fiction: Saunders, Bender, Link, and Luce! This book in an incantation, and I adore it.”—Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn
“These stories unsettle as much as they entertain.”—Jim Shepard, author of You Think That’s Bad
“InThree Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail, Kelly Luce manages the impossible: each story delicate and enormous, intricate, glitteringly beautiful, never less than strange, never less than profound, ten spiderwebs astonishingly spun. Readers: here is your new favorite short story writer.”—Elizabeth McCracken, author of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
“Kelly Luce writes stories whose charm is a lasting effect. Her work is witty, unpredictable, and freshly written. There’s a genuine imagination at work here that is a delight to spend time with.”—Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago
“Perhaps the greatest magic of all is Luce’s gift for exploring the pains people take to love and be loved. Luce excels at making the fantastical familiar and the familiar fantastic. Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is a triumph!”—Amber Dermont, author of The Starboard Sea
“Kelly Luce writes rings around most writers, and this is only her first book.Hana Sasakiis bold, strange, funny, and tender. These stories are just such a pleasure to read—so forget this blurb and get to the damn book.”—Victor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver