The Heat Death of the Universe and Other Stories
JUST PUBLISHED:
New paperback edition, 208 pages, 6 x 9", 2018, 978-1-62054-034-3
Preface by Thomas M. Disch.
Every once in a great while there appears a first book that captures the attention of a broad spectrum of readers, draws extraordinary praise from critics, and catapults the author overnight into an established presence. That is exactly what has happened with this collection. This book presents two novellas (including "Sheep," which appeared first in our Likely Stories) and three long stories. Alongside her oft-anthologized story "The Heat Death of the Universe," will be found "Instructions for Exiting This Building in Case of Fire," "The Holland of the Mind," and "Busy About the Tree of Life." We're taken from the ontological recesses of Sarah Boyle's kitchen into an encyclopedic cure for insomnia, and then find recounted what must surely be the most catastrophic (and hilarious) genealogy in modern fiction. All along the way, as the cultural detritus of Western Civilization seeps in between the quotidian cracks, Zoline never loses sight of the personal dimensions of life.
For the clothbound edition, go here.
“Nuclear war, obesity, failed marriages, kidnapped children — threats of destruction haunt Ms. Zoline’s imagination. She attacks those fears in fiction that revitalizes the labels ‘post-modern’ and ‘feminist,’ by lacing her work with a healthy dose of fantasy that links her to Angela Carter, her nearest literary sibling.” — New York Times Book Review
“The work of a seasoned writer who makes us see the world in a brand new way.”— Philadelphia Inquirer
“Such are the marvelous qualities of her writing that a number of literary fads could come and go, but The Heat Death of the Universe would live on.”—LOCUS
“Weird, challenging, distinctive, jolting: a polymathic product of fine writing, mordant commentary, and subtle thinking.” — Kirkus Reviews
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Pamela Zoline or Pamela Lifton-Zoline (born in Chicago in 1941) is a writer and painter living in Telluride, Colorado. In addition to The Heat Death of the Universe and Other Stories, she has written a children's book (Annika and the Wolves), libretti for two operas (Harry Houdini and the False and True Occult; The Forbidden Experiment), and original science fiction radio plays for the Telluride Science Fiction Project. A novel is rumored to be in progress.
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