Description
BESTIARY MEETS THE DANGERS OF SMOKING IN BED IN THIS COLLECTION OF 11 EERIE, UNCANNY, AND SURREAL SHORT STORIES
In this debut collection, Puloma Ghosh uses the speculative as a catalyst to push her stories and characters beyond what reality allows. Exploring grief, intimacy, sexuality, and bodily autonomy, Mouth leans into the bizarre and absurd while reaching for the truth.
In "Dessication," a teen figure skater with necrophiliac tendencies is convinced the only other Indian girl at the rink is a vampire. A woman returns to Kolkata in "The Fig Tree," where she is haunted by her deceased mother or a shakchunni, or both. "Nip" bottles up the consuming and addictive nature of infatuation while "Natalya" is a hair-raising autopsy of an ex-lover. And in "Persimmons," a girl comes to terms with her own community sacrifice.
Blurring the lines of conventional reality and giving fangs, talons, and singular sharpness to the otherwise ordinary, awkward, and unmentionable, Mouth's surrealism is both unique and captivating. Puloma Ghosh reaches into otherworldly spaces while exploring the everyday struggles of isolation, longing, and the aching desires of our flesh.
About the Author
Puloma Ghosh is a fiction writer based in Chicago whose work has appeared in One Story and CRAFT Literary as the 2020 Flash Fiction Contest winner, among other publications. This is her first book.
Reviews
"This surreal collection of stories will blow your mind. Both with the content and how well Ghosh has mastered the short story. Each story in this collection bends genre and weaves through expectations. Each one left my jaw on the floor."
-Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
Book Information
ISBN 9781662602474
Author Puloma Ghosh
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Minedition (imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc)
Publisher Astra Publishing House
Weight(grams) 567g