Adult

In A HISTORY OF HEARTACHE, boys grow up fast in the blazing heat of North Texas, and men grow old before their time. A wayward son rides shotgun into a night he can't take back. A janitor at an abortion clinic can’t outrun a ghost --- or a camera. Strickland writes with clear-eyed realism and unsparing craftsmanship about common people poised on the knife-edge of hope. With taut sentences and a wicked sense of humor, these 15 stories chart the small mercies and big mistakes that make a life: the songs we inherit, the bottles we empty, the tools we fashion from whatever’s at hand. Gritty and tender in the same breath, this debut fiction collection asks what it costs to stay, what it takes to leave, and who we become when we do.

Forty-year-old Jean Dornan cannot escape the summer of 1998, when, as a college student studying abroad in France, she embarked on an inappropriate relationship with her professor. Now, decades later, Jean’s long-standing malaise becomes an emotional crisis. Desperate to understand why this relationship derailed her life so completely, she begins rereading her old diaries and is shocked to realize that her own disastrous affair occurred during the summer of the Lewinsky scandal, yet she never saw the parallels. In a frenzy of guilt and regret, Jean finds herself praying to Monica Lewinsky for forgiveness as if she were a secular saint. To Jean’s shock, Saint Monica appears --- powerful, radiant, wise and witty --- and guides Jean like the Ghost of Christmas Past back to the summer of 1998.

On a brisk February morning while walking to the diner where she works, 24 year-old Ruth Foster is stopped by the local sheriff. He insists she accompany him to a health clinic, threatening to arrest her if she doesn’t undergo testing in order to preserve decency and prevent the spread of sexual disease. Though Ruth has never shared more than a chaste kiss with a man, by day’s end she is one of dozens of women held at the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women. Superintendent Dorothy Baker, convinced that she’s transforming degenerate souls into upstanding members of society, oversees the women’s medical treatment and “training” until they’re deemed ready for parole. Sooner or later, everyone at the Colony learns to abide by Mrs. Baker’s rule book or face the consequences --- solitary confinement, grueling work assignments, and worse.

Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes? What Natalie’s followers don’t know won’t hurt them. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children --- they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.

Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance. For 43 days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world --- until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated. Tavish thought he'd left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it’s not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women --- all of whom he'd professed to love. Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, Tavish begins his own investigation into the fire --- and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined.

The characters in MY DEAR YOU find themselves facing extraordinary choices in scenarios that range from the everyday to the absurd: The U.S. government injects all citizens with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. God does away with humans in favor of something much better. A factory worker decides to befriend a sex doll she is tasked with selling. These stories go deep beneath the surface, touching on the particular awkwardness of dating in your 30s and asking: What does it mean to be an Asian woman in America? Or an American? Or a human? Along the way, the characters stop to consider interventions from the supernatural, the earthly, the robotic and the immortal.

Cynthia Burrows thought she'd built the perfect life --- successful law career, loving husband, beautiful daughter. But when 18-year-old Tori vanishes without a trace, Cynthia's carefully constructed world begins to crumble. The school says Tori was excused by family. Security footage shows her leaving with an older man. And the boy she was supposed to date? His name sends chills down Cynthia's spine --- Alexander Beaufort. That's impossible. Alexander Beaufort is the serial killer who destroyed Cynthia's childhood, murdered her best friend, and forced her into witness protection 20 years ago. He's supposed to be locked away forever. But someone is playing a deadly game, leaving clues that drag Cynthia back to her darkest memories. With only three days to find her daughter, she must confront the monster from her past and the shocking secrets Tori has been hiding.

In the early morning of November 29, 2019, surveillance cameras captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river. In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son, Zac. Days later, police officers relayed the dreadful news: her son was dead. In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they’d always known. Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers’ quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption.

It's 1999, and Nikki Rose is the only Black editor on the staff of a prestigious fashion magazine she once thought would be her ticket to becoming a respected editor in chief. But after being told one too many times by her boss that “Black girls don’t sell magazines,” she quits to take over Sugar, a struggling hip hop music and lifestyle magazine with untapped potential. Thrown into an entirely new world of wealth, decadence and debauchery, Nikki has just six months to save Sugar --- and her own dreams. As she pulls all-nighters at the office and parties with New York City’s most influential bad boys, Nikki must prove she has what it takes to lead. But her most dangerous challenge is evading Alonzo Griffin, her very married, very powerful ex-lover and former boss, who is determined to destroy both her and Sugar.

Osama is a Palestinian professor, originally from Gaza, who cannot leave the West Bank city of Ramallah. Sari is an Israeli-American lawyer and long-distance runner who petitions Israel's Supreme Court for his right to travel freely. When the case began, neither expected to fall in love --- and when it was over, nobody expected their love to endure. First published in Hebrew in 2021, Osama and Sari's star-crossed romance --- an intimate, vulnerable portrait of an astoundingly resilient Israeli-Palestinian relationship --- has since become a beacon of hope in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. UPSIDE-DOWN LOVE speaks to the unique circumstances of this specific moment in history, while also illustrating a timeless truth: Love will triumph over bigotry and destruction.