Tunneling to the Center of the Earth

A debut short story collection in the tradition of writers like Kelly Link, Aimee Bender, and George Saundersstrange, imaginative, and refreshingly originalnow back in print as part of Eccos Art of the Story Series,and with a new introduction from the authorKevin Wilsons characters inhabit a world that moves seamlessly between the real and the imagined, the mundane and the fantastic. Grand Stand-In is narrated by an employee of the Nuclear Family Supplemental Providera company that supplies stand-ins for families with deceased, ill, or just plain mean grandparents. And in Blowing Up On the Spot, a story singled out by Ann Patchett for Ploughshares, a young woman works sorting tiles at a Scrabble factory after her parents have spontaneously combusted. Southern gothic at its best, laced with humor and pathos, these wonderfully inventive stories explore the relationship between loss and death and the many ways we try to cope with both.