Book cover of Ghosts of You

Book description

Cathy Ulrich's debut short story collection, GHOSTS OF YOU, seeks out the names of the lost and finds the person behind the sensationalism. It examines some of the most common tropes in mystery and crime storytelling, in which the narrative always begins with the body of yet another murdered woman.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Ghosts of You as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

More than any other book here, Cathy Ulrich’s flash fiction collection epitomises the “linked story” concept in terms of form and theme (as opposed to plot).

Each short piece is addressed to “you”, and “you” are a woman who has been murdered. We may learn little or nothing concrete about the dead character each story addresses, but the absence of that stolen life leaves an outline of what’s been lost, a haunting negative image of the life she might otherwise have lived.

What results is a moving, subtle illustration of the humanity of the absent “you”.

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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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