Strategies Against Extinction
"Most first books of fiction tread uncomfortably close to the writer's life. But here's a debut collection of stories that takes us to some unexpected and remarkable places: a '50s-era sports radio broadcast, a vascular surgeon's worst moment, a bracing encounter with Vladimir Putin. Michael Nye has written his way across the divides of time and gender and place and has occupied nine diverse lives. The insights he arrives at are sharp and memorable. The writing is finely crafted. This is an auspicious first book."--John Dalton, author of Heaven Lake and The Inverted Forest"The magic in these stories is the life that pulses just below the surface, as fragile and relentless as the human heart. These stories remind me of Richard Ford's brilliant early stories in the way that plain-spoken people try to hold on as their lives spin, almost imperceptibly at first, out of control. The cumulative effect is uniquely moving. The emotional impact, however, is far from ordinary. Read Nye now so you can say you knew of him back before everybody else."--Daniel Stolar, author of The Middle of the Night"The range of characters and actions in this first collection is refreshing. We get to know a film student who yearns to escape her hometown, a Pirates broadcaster who is not important enough to travel with the team and must re-create the action as if he were watching it, an ex-governor of Ohio who wrestles Vladimir Putin, and a surgeon who trains a new doctor to be tough enough by taking her hunting. Nye's characters do not merely think and wish and yearn, but rather they act, they do, they struggle in surprising and shocking ways."--Mary Troy, author of Beauties and Cookie Lily"In his first collection, Michael Nye shows he has the heartbeat of a seasoned veteran of prose. The writing sizzles here with raw and touching characters. The mishaps, mistakes, misfortunes, and miracles meld to form something wonderful and real."--Ryan Stone, author of Best Road Yet"With astonishing insight and poignant precision, Michael Nye exposes the devastatingly subtle consequences of betrayal, the frangibility of our human bodies, and the quiet intensity of our desire to transcend grief and restore our families. Strategies Against Extinction is a piercing reminder of our transient existence, a quiet cry in the night that swells to an aching song of hope, an aria of love surging beneath rage, delivering us from fear, and sustaining us through sorrow."--Melanie Rae Thon, author of In This Light and The Voice of the River