Skip to main content

About the Book

About the Book

Homesick for Another World: Stories

An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time.

Ottessa Moshfegh’s debut novel EILEEN was one of the literary events of 2015 --- garlanded with critical acclaim, it was named a book of the year by The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, selected as a BEA Buzz pick and nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. But as many critics noted, Moshfegh is among connoisseurs particularly held in awe for her short stories. HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD is the rare case where an author’s short story collection is if anything more anticipated than her novel.

And for good reason. There’s something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh’s stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though in very different ways each to each, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses.

HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O’Connor, and HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD is her EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE or A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND.

The flesh is weak; the timber is crooked; people are cruel to each other, and stupid, and hurtful. But beauty comes from strange sources. And the dark energy surging through these stories is oddly and powerfully invigorating. We’re in the hands of an author with a big mind, a big heart, blazing chops, and a political acuity that is needle-sharp. The needle hits the vein before we even feel the prick.

Audiobook available, narrated by Richard Poe Alyssa Bresnahan

Homesick for Another World: Stories
by Ottessa Moshfegh

  • Publication Date: December 5, 2017
  • Genres: Fiction, Short Stories
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • ISBN-10: 0399562907
  • ISBN-13: 9780399562907