Games and Rituals: Stories

The beloved author of Early Morning Riser (“The funniest novel of the year.” - The Washington Post) brings us eleven glittering stories of love - friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, ill-advised trysts - in all its forms, both ridiculous & sublime. 

The Games & Rituals performed by Katherine Heiny’s characters range from mischievous to tender: In “Bridesmaid, Revisited,” Marlee, suffering from a laundry & life crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid’s dress to work. In “Twist & Shout,” Ericka’s elderly father mistakes his four-thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew & eats it. In “Turn Back, Turn Back,” a bedtime story coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveals a struggling actor’s deception. And in “561,” Charlene pays the true price of infidelity & is forced to help her husband’s ex-wife move out of the family home. (“It’s like you’re North Korea and South Korea... But would North Korea help South Korea move?”) 

From one of our most celebrated writers, our bard of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wrong shoes, late for the wrong job, but loved by the right people, Katherine Heiny has delivered a work of glorious humor & immense kindness.

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KATHERINE HEINY is the author of Early Morning Riser, Standard Deviation, & Single, Carefree, Mellow, & her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, & many other magazines. She has lived in London, The Hague, & Boyne City, Michigan, & now lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband & children.