ACT NORMAL

ACT NORMAL is a collection of sharp, new comic stories about sex, art, and the daily risk of having accidents. Highly original, occasionally dark, but always endearing, these stories are filled with characters who are forced to confront strange behaviour in both themselves and others. In "The Amazing Insult," a blow to the head in a boating accident increases a woman's intelligence and alters her sexual orientation. A man flees a rural meditation camp in for a highway bar in "The Retreat," where he does his best to get to know a Haitian stripper. Nominated for a National Magazine Award, "The Drug-Friendly House," is the story of a man who attempts to befriend a woman living in a house that the neighbourhood association has labelled "drug friendly." Intelligent, insightful, humorous, and occasionally bizarre, ACT NORMAL is a masterful return by Hollingshead to the short story form.

Greg Hollingshead has published six books of fiction, including The Roaring Girl, The Healer, and Bedlam. Hollingshead's last novel, Bedlam, was widely acclaimed and very well-reviewed in both the US and Canada, and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Editors' Choice.