Somewhere North of Normal

Description

“Adam Lindsay Honsinger’s Somewhere North of Normal shows a writer wonderfully adept at a variety of styles – Jorge Borges meets Kurt Vonnegut meets Raymond Carver – all leavened with Honsinger’s own ironic voice in this collection of vividly imagined fictions.” — Antanas Sileika, author of Buying On Time and Underground

“In Somewhere North of Normal, people strive to see clearly through distortions while encountering the mysteries that are other people and navigating trajectories that are bound to swerve. Adam Lindsay Honsinger renders this landscape of the strangely recognizable with intelligent acuity and a keen sense of the absurd.” — Catherine Bush, author of Accusation and The Rules of Engagement

Venture to a place where reality bends: where a dying butterfly may inspire a revelation; where after being electrocuted, an artist’s body becomes a work of art; where a man may wake up after falling four stories to find himself face to face with his ten-year-old self. This outright defiance of that which we hold to be impossible is rooted to varying degrees in each story, not simply because fiction allows it, but because it is within the geography of the imagination that the lost souls of this collection attain transcendence and emotional reconciliation.

Many stories in Somewhere North of Normal have been published in literary journals such as Descant, Prism International, and Exile Quarterly. Two stories were nominated for The Journey Prize Anthology, and one was awarded a Silver at the National Magazine Awards.

“Honsinger’s stories crackle with depth of mood and theme. A lingering sadness grounds the collection, and thematic explorations of class and disability, intergenerational trauma, settler colonialism, and suicide ideation leave the reader provoked, shaken, and moved.” — Quill & Quire

Praise for Gracelessland

“The broad-strokes familiarity of the overarching narrative allows Kepler’s personal peculiarities – and Honsinger’s skills as a writer – to shine through … a novel that feels fresh, rich, and heavy with the thrum of life.” – Robert Wiersema, Quill & Quire

“admirably zany without ever tipping into quirk.” – The Winnipeg Review