num_pages: 208
description: In this remarkable collection of bite-size stories Stuart Dybek one of our most prodigious writers explores the human appetite for rapture and for trust. With fervent intensity and sly wit he gives each tale his signature mix of characterssome almost ghostly others vividly realwho live in worlds tinged with surreal potential. There are crazed nuns hijacking streetcars eerie adventures across frozen ponds and a boy who is visited by a miniature bride and groom every night in his uncle's doomsday compound. Whether they are about a simple transaction a brave inquiry a difficult negotiation or shared bliss the stories in Ecstatic Cahoots target the friction between our need for ecstatic self-transcendence and our passionate longing for trust between lovers friends family and even strangers.Call it micro-fiction or mini-fiction flash fiction or short shorts. Whatever the label the marvelous encounters here are marked by puzzlement anguish and conspiratorial high spirits. In this thrilling collection Stuart Dybek has once again re-envisioned the possibilities of fiction creating myriad human situations that fold endlessly upon each other his crackling prose drawing out the strange the intimate and the mysterious elements in each.
language: English
title: Ecstatic Cahoots: Fifty Short Stories
publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux