The Complexities of Intimacy

"The music of Mary Caponegro's stories is to the mouth what wine is. Readers will find themselves lost among answers, intoxicated, knowing only that these are stories unlike any others before or since, which is, for this reader at least, a relief, a challenge, and a godsend."—William Gass

A breathtaking stylist, Caponegro imbues her sardonic, surreal text with startling details: a sister with a secret tail, a brother who invents a hammock from a harp, and precocious children who choose their own parents. Buoyed by her arch, Jamesian prose and psychological tone, Caponegro's stories are as delicately intricate as the fragile and difficult familial relationships they describe.

Mary Caponegro's short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions and Sulfur. Her previous short story collections include The Star Café and Five Doubts.