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Mouthful of birds : stories

by Schweblin, Samanta, 1978-

Format: Print Book 2019
Availability: Available at 11 Libraries 11 of 16 copies

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Summary
"Superb" -- Vogue

"What makes Schweblin so startling as a writer, however, what makes her rare and important, is that she is impelled not by mere talent or ambition but by vision." -- New York Times

A powerful, eerily unsettling story collection from a major international literary star.

The brilliant stories in Mouthful of Birds burrow their way into your psyche and don't let go. Samanta Schweblin haunts and mesmerizes in this extraordinary collection featuring women on the edge, men turned upside down, the natural world at odds with reality. We think life is one way, but often, it's not -- our expectations for how people act, love, fear can all be upended. Each character in Mouthful of Birds must contend with the unexpected, whether a family coming apart at the seams or a child transforming or a ghostly hellscape or a murder.

Schweblin's stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications, leaving your pulse racing, and the line between the real and the strange blurs.
Contents
Headlights
Preserves
Butterflies
Mouthful of birds
Santa Claus sleeps at our house
The digger
Irman
The test
Toward happy civilization
Olingiris
My brother Walter
The merman
Rage of pestilence
Heads against concrete
The size of things
Underground
Slowing down
On the steppe
A great effort
The heavy suitcase of Benavides.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Schweblin's intense collection, following her absorbing novel, Fever Dream (2017), blends the everyday and the surreal, exploring internal currents, domesticity, and human connection. Her narrators bring the different perspectives of age and gender. In the memorable title tale, a father is shocked to discover that his daughter consumes small birds. Things grow more complicated when she abruptly moves in, forcing him to fully confront this unusual behavior. In My Brother Walter, a brother's depression is a source of good fortune for surrounding family and friends. Santa Claus Sleeps in the House follows the breakdown of a husband and wife through the eyes of their child. Other stories explore the various twists in characters' lives and the peculiar worlds they inhabit. Heads of Concrete portrays a successful painter who finds inspiration in a macabre method. An unexpected encounter in The Merman induces a woman to briefly question the path of and fragmented relationships in her life. These 20 tales have a visceral effect as Schweblin navigates the extremes of her characters' actions and thoughts, both healing and destructive.--Leah Strauss Copyright 2018 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Schweblin (Fever Dream) once again deploys a heavy dose of nightmare fuel in this frightening, addictive collection. In "Headlights," Felicity, a just-married woman whose husband has abandoned her by the side of the road, hears and senses an approaching swarm of jilted women in the pitch black fields around her ("The laughter is closer now; it completely drowns out the crying"). "Preserves" is about a married couple expecting their first child and deciding to alter nature's course. In the title story, two parents try to figure out what to do about their young daughter, who has started eating live birds. In "Underground," the children in a small mining town dig a massive hole and suddenly disappear, and when their parents go looking for them, they find the hole filled in-and empty when they dig it up again. "The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides" follows a man who thinks that he has killed his wife and stuffed her in a suitcase. When he visits his doctor to confess, his doctor responds to the news unexpectedly, leading to a startling ending. Schweblin has a knack for leaving things unsaid: by zeroing in on her characters and settings to an uncomfortably close degree and only hinting at what's at the edges of the perspective, she achieves a constant sense of dread. Schweblin's stories are canny, provocative, and profoundly unsettling. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Schweblin, Samanta, -- 1978- -- Translations into English.
Short stories.
Publisher New York :Riverhead Books,2019
Edition First American edition.
Other Titles Short stories.
Contributors McDowell, Megan, translator.
Language English
Notes "Originally published in Spanish and in somewhat different form, as Pájaros en la boca by Random House Mondadori in 2010."
Description 228 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN 9780399184628
0399184627
Other Classic View