{"title":"Robin McLean","description":"Robin McLean's first short story collection, \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e (2015), won the BOA Short Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Short Story Prize in 2011 and 2012. McLean’s stories have appeared widely in such places as \u003cem\u003eThe Nashville Review, The Malahat Review, Gargoyle, The Common\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eCopper Nickel\u003c\/em\u003e, as well as the anthology \u003cem\u003eAmerican Fiction: The Best Unpublished Short Stories by Emerging Writers\u003c\/em\u003e. For more about Robin McLean, visit \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.robinmclean.net\/\"\u003ewww.robinmclean.net\u003c\/a\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"reptile-house","title":"Reptile House","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of The BOA Short Fiction Prize\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cem\u003eParis Review\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eBest Book of 2015\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fascinating characters in these nine short stories abandon families, plot assassinations, nurse vendettas, tease, taunt, and terrorize. They retaliate for bad marriages, derail their lives with desires and delusions, and wait decades for lovers. How far will we go to escape to a better dream? What consequences must we face for hope and fantasy? Probing the dark underbelly of human nature and want, Robin McLean’s stories are strange, often disturbing and funny, and as full of foolishness and ugliness as they are of the wisdom and beauty all around us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eOnce you’ve read these nine stories, forgetting them is as unlikely as discovering the end-point of pi. Kissing cousins to George Saunders, Donald Barthelme, and perhaps even Don DeLillo, they are nonetheless powered by a distinctive new voice. McLean dives fearlessly through the Looking Glass; she scrubs the psyche raw, perhaps in an effort to get even closer to what constitutes 'reality.\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Jim Story\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eRobin McLean\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es debut collection is electric. I recommend that you get a copy and put it at the top of your stack.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—Jodi Angel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eReptile House is so wonderful. It\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es full of (almost) unbearable tension and what a wild ride through so many worlds. I enjoyed reading it hugely and am recommending it to all my reading\/writing friends.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Kathy Anderson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWhen you read Robin McLean\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es stories, she\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es gonna get you. She will take you out into deep, and then deeper, water.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—Noy Holland\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eI haven\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003et read a book this dark and frank and sublimely written in a while. Maybe since Cormac McCarthy\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es No Country for Old Men.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—Alden Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Robin McLean writes in wonderful cascades of language. Her characters are carried along by those cascades, often unwittingly. Sometimes, as with the two young men in \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eNo Name Creek,\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e they are carried to a happy end. More often, they seem to be, like Lilibeth in \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eCold Snap,\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e overtaken by events beyond their control. Characters’ own words, often inept or pathetic in light of their situations, offer ironic counterpoint. Much is laughable in these stories. Don’t be deceived. Through her sly wit and humor, Robin McLean is luring readers into deeper questions.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Frank Soos\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Tonally and structurally, these marvelous stories have no discernable influences. In her debut collection, Robin McLean emerges as a writer with a singular voice and vision. I admire this book immoderately, and I hope that readers will find it.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Chris Bachelder\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Robin McLean\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es fiction is harrowing and wry and compassionate, and always both fiercely rooted in the world and fearlessly willing to take chances.   I love her keen sense of our inherent strangeness, and her heartening sense of just how important it is that we never stop trying to close the gap between who are and who we aspire to be.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—Jim Shepard\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eLike [Flannery] O’Connor’s work, \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e is rife with moral ambiguity and extreme violence—elegantly written, abruptly erupting, and starkly moving—as well as other forms of human and inhuman darkness. . . . But there is unadulterated joy in \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e, and it lies in the inventiveness of McLean’s language. Her prose is energetic and lyrical without excising ugliness . . . This skill with language makes possible the stories\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es portraits of human beings, so revealing in their unsentimental bleakness, and it is in this unique style that the worldhood of \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e emerges. . . . To read \u003cem\u003eReptile House\u003c\/em\u003e is to dwell in a broken, funny, frightening, possibly doomed world—a world that may help us to read and live in our own.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e—\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eKenyon Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eCharacters struggle to control slivers of their fates in the nine stories of McLean’s debut. . . . McLean has a knack for stunning sentences that resonate with her characters’ circumstances. . . . [She] stages yearning and stasis with poignancy and wit.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eMcLean’s debut collection of short stories moves seamlessly from adultery to kidnapping, from assassination plots to extreme geothermal events, all in a voice that is spare and darkly poetic. . . . McLean’s characters are lonely in their marriages, isolated from the world around them, and not generally given happy endings. What this book does offer, however, is strangely realistic glimpses into conflicts that are equal parts surreal and hyper-realistic, rendered by a voice that gracefully juxtaposes terse reportage and lyrical insight. The result is a taut volume that explores the fate of the dashed dreamer, offering charming insights into the untidy worlds of people who are not where they thought they’d be.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2015\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420391237,"sku":"9781938160653","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/ReptileHouse_Front_compressed.jpg?v=1527683333"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/154.1405618231.jpeg?v=1449014879","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/robin-mclean.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}