GAMES AND RITUALS

The beloved author of Early Morning Riser ("The funniest novel of the year." The Washington Post) brings us eleven glittering stories of love in all its ridiculous, sublime forms: Friendships formed at the airport bar, ex-husbands with benefits, mothers of suspiciously sweet teenagers, and ill-advised trysts aplenty.

The games and rituals performed by Katherine Heiny's characters range from mischievous to tender: In "Bridesmaid, Revisited," Marilee, suffering from a laundry crisis, wears a massive bridesmaid's dress to her office. In "Twist and Shout" Ericka's elderly father mistakes his four- thousand-dollar hearing aid for a cashew and eats it. In "Turn Back, Turn Back" a bedtime sto- ry about a white forest coupled with a receipt for a Starbucks babyccino reveal an actor's de- ception. And in "561" Charlene pays the true price of infidelity and is forced to help her husband's ex-wife move out of the family home. ("It's like you're North Korea and South Korea... But would North Korea help South Korea move?") From one of our most celebrated writers, our bard of waking up in the wrong bed, wearing the wrong shoes, late for the wrong job, and yet loved by the right people, Katherine Heiny has delivered a work of glorious humor and immense kindness. Katherine Heiny is the author of Early Morning Riser, Standard Deviation and Single, Carefree, Mellow, and her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other magazines. She lives in Maryland with her husband and children, and is a former resident of London, The Hague, and Boyne City, Michigan.