Red Girl Rat Boy

"Complicated, passionate, genuine."— Women. Young women, old women. The hair-obsessed, the politically driven, the sure-footed, the bony-butted, the awkward and compulsive and alone. Sleep-deprived and testy. Exhausted and accepting. Among the innumerable wives, husbands, sisters, and in-laws vexed by short temper and insecurity throughout this short story collection, Cynthia Flood’s protagonists stand out as citizens of a reality that the rest of the world will only partially understand. New from the Journey Prize-winning author, is a collection of astonishing range and assured technique, whose voices—gothic, peculiar, domestic, and strange—remain as passionate and complex as ever. Praise for “Revenge and politics season this potent and passionate collection of stories. Flood excavates indelible histories that haunt even those who’ve shaken the dust of the past.” — “Flood’s eye is unflinching, her language energetic and precise, her vision bracing, passionate and entirely lacking in sentimentality.”— “The notary in ‘Dirty Work’ has ‘retired from witnessing how rough human existence is.’ Fortunately for us, Cynthia Flood has not … these stories prove her to be among our great North American fiction writers.”— “Raw energy is Cynthia Flood’s territory. This is a superb collection.”— “Cynthia Flood is full of surprises. If there’s one thing that characterizes her elegant, crystal-sharp short stories, it’s that element of surprise … they reward the attentive reader with surprise and delight”—Dave Margoshes, author of