Rag

“In these wild and inventive stories, Meijer brilliantly channels the most unsettled corners of the human heart . . . a harrowing and profound collection.” —Laura van den Berg, author of State of Paradise

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

One of Library Journal’s Best Short Story Collections of 2019

One of Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Tor.com’s Books to Read in February

A man, forgotten by the world, takes care of his deaf brother while euthanizing dogs for a living. A stepbrother so desperately wants to become his stepsibling that he rapes his girlfriend. In Maryse Meijer’s decidedly dark and searingly honest collection Rag, the desperate human desire for connection slips into a realm that approximates horror.

Meijer’s explosive debut collection, Heartbreaker, reinvented sexualized and romantic taboos, holding nothing back. In Rag, Meijer’s fearless follow-up, she shifts her focus to the dark heart of intimacies of all kinds, and the ways in which isolated people’s yearning for community can breed violence, danger, and madness. With unparalleled precision, Meijer spins stories that leave you troubled and slightly shaken by her uncanny ability to elicit empathy for society’s most marginalized people.

“Sharp, haunting . . . Meijer traverses an impressive range of emotional, psychological and physical traumas, with a near-total investment in sketching atrocity rather than deciphering it . . . [Her] willingness to write fiercely into the abyss deserves respect.” —Merritt Tierce, The New York Times Book Review

“She has a fantastic sense for the visceral and the disquieting, and for unexpected literary juxtapositions. This latest collection offers readers another opportunity to be memorably disoriented.” —Vol. 1 Brooklyn