Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories (P.S.) - Softcover

Wilson, Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061579025 ISBN 13: 9780061579028

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2009

Synopsis

Kevin Wilson's characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. "Grand Stand-In" is narrated by an employee of a Nuclear Family Supplemental Provider--a company that supplies "stand-ins" for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents. And in "Blowing Up On the Spot," a young woman works sorting tiles at a Scrabble factory after her parents have spontaneously combusted.

Southern gothic at its best, laced with humor and pathos, these wonderfully inventive stories explore the relationship between loss and death and the many ways we try to cope with both.

About this title

Review:

"Acute and uniformly unsettling, these fictions explore themes of loss and loneliness with fresh young insight, and occasionally with a faint rainbow at the end."--Boston Globe

"These short stories by Kevin Wilson...are weird in the best way. They are bizarre notions that are fleshed out in sustained narrative by a deft maestro...beautifully rendered."--Memphis Commercial Appeal

"A Southern writer with a bent sense of humor offers a fine debut collection of stories, some unlike anything you've read before. Wilson displays a marvelous sense of narrative ingenuity...Weird and wonderful stories from a writer who has that most elusive of gifts: new ideas."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Geniously surreal but affecting short stories about spontaneous combustion, Scrabble and angst at all ages. RIYL (Read if you love): George Saunders."--Louisville Courier Journal

"Wilson's little time-bomb fables have a surrealist zip, like miniature Magritte paintings come to life."--Washington Post

"Turns the genre of Southern fiction on its head...Wilson's fully realized characters keep the stories grounded."--Bomb Magazine

"I'm drawn to particular authors, folks like George Saunders and Stacey Richter and Kevin Wilson...who I know are going to kick my ass."--Steve Almond, author of CANDYFREAK

"Kevin Wilson's brilliant debut is full of characters you won't be able to forget and wouldn't want to even if you could."--Brock Clarke, bestselling author of AN ARSONIST'S GUIDE TO WRITERS' HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND

"Kevin Wilson's stories show us a world that is both real and full of illusion...He forces us to look at our own lives in a new and slightly off-kilter way."--Ann Patchett, bestselling author of BEL CANTO

"Kevin Wilson is the unholy child of George Saunders and Carson McCullers.... Jesus Christ is this guy good."--Owen King

About the Author:

Kevin Wilson is the author of the novels The Family Fang, a New York Times bestseller and a best book of the year in Time, People, Salon, and Esquire; and Perfect Little World. His story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, received an Alex Award from the American Library Association as well as the Shirley Jackson Award. He teaches fiction at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife and two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061579025
• ISBN 13: 9780061579028
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240