‘Beautifully crafted’ New York Times
‘The best collection I’ve read in years, from a phenomenal new talent’ Celeste Ng
From an award-winning writer, a stunning collection of stories about women’s unexpressed desires and needs, and the unexpected ways they resurface.
In ‘Floor Plans’, a woman at the end of her marriage tests her power when she inadvertently befriends the neighbor trying to buy her apartment. In ‘Appetite’, a sixteen-year old grieving her mother’s death experiences first love and questions how much more heartbreak she and her family can endure. In ‘Dinosaurs’, a recent widower and a young babysitter help each other navigate how much they have to give -and how much they can take – from the people around them.
Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. With a fresh voice and bold honesty, Back Talk examines how narrowly our culture allows women to express their desires.
‘The best collection I’ve read in years, from a phenomenal new talent’ Celeste Ng
From an award-winning writer, a stunning collection of stories about women’s unexpressed desires and needs, and the unexpected ways they resurface.
In ‘Floor Plans’, a woman at the end of her marriage tests her power when she inadvertently befriends the neighbor trying to buy her apartment. In ‘Appetite’, a sixteen-year old grieving her mother’s death experiences first love and questions how much more heartbreak she and her family can endure. In ‘Dinosaurs’, a recent widower and a young babysitter help each other navigate how much they have to give -and how much they can take – from the people around them.
Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. With a fresh voice and bold honesty, Back Talk examines how narrowly our culture allows women to express their desires.
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Reviews
Lazarin's exceptional debut collection digs deep into the lives of women, telling complex stories of loss, hope, and joy. . . . [Back Talk] is confident and exhilarating; this auspicious collection is uniformly excellent
Beautifully crafted . . . These stories hand their warnings to us: Don't be pleasant or easy to touch. Look mean for the camera. Just get up and go
Danielle Lazarin's Back Talk is deceptively quiet but packs a powerful punch-much like the girls and women in its pages. The stories in this collection batter at the boundaries of female desire-not just for sex, but for intimacy, for visibility, for agency. They talk back to the idea that stories about women are 'domestic,' burrowing deep to find wildness and a smoldering fury beneath. The best collection I've read in years, from a phenomenal new talent