HOUSE GONE QUIET
STORIES
An eerie, irresistible debut story collection about the bonds and bounds of community and what it means to call a place home, “perfect for readers of Margaret Atwood and Carmen Maria Machado” (Booklist).
In stores October 17th, 2023
A group of women contemplate violence after they’re sent into foreign territory to make husbands of the enemy. A support network of traumatized joggers meets to discuss the bodies they’ve found on their runs. And a town replaces its Confederate monument with a rotating cast of local residents. Slippery but muscular, sly but electric, this stunning debut collection moves from horror to magical realism to satire with total authority. In these stories, characters build and remake their sense of home, be it with one another or within themselves.
As in the very best collections, each of these stories is a world all its own, with a novel’s emotional heft and a poem’s laser focus on the most achingly resonant details of its characters’ lives. Captivating from start to finish, House Gone Quiet announces the arrival of a thrilling literary talent.
“Kelsey Norris’s work is tender, bold, and beautiful whether she is working in the surreal or creating power in the familiar... A writer to watch if there ever was one.”
“From searing satire to haunting magical realism, Kelsey Norris’s carefully and beautifully crafted tales left me laughing, gasping, and completely enthralled.”
“First-rate, precise, and perceptive short stories full of voices, feeling, and far-ranging knowledge of the world: Kelsey Norris’s exciting first collection is a book I’ve been waiting to read for some time.”
“A playful, far-ranging, and unruly collection from a writer whose keen eye and joy in language leap out on every page.”
“The stories in this collection are astonishing jewels; you turn them over in your hands, dazzled by the many glints and facets... Tense, moving, and hilarious at turns—HOUSE GONE QUIET is an absolute delight. I loved every second of it.”