Little Reef and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Little Reef and Other Storiesannounces the arrival of an original voice in literature. From Key West to Maine, Michael Carroll’s debut collection of stories depicts the lives of characters who are no longer provincial but are not yet cosmopolitan. These women and their gay male friends are “B-listers” of a new, ironic, media-soaked culture. They live in a rich but increasingly divided America, a weirdly paradoxical country increasingly accepting of gay marriage but still marked by prejudice, religious strictures, and swaths of poverty and hopelessness. Carroll shows us people stunned by the shock of the now, who have forgotten their pasts and can’t envision a future.

Winner, Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, American Academy of Arts and Letters

Finalist, Gay Fiction, Lambda Literary Award

Finalist, Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, Publishing Triangle

Little Reef and Other Storiesis a collection of stories that dramatize the lives of contemporary gay men, their families, and especially the women who become important in their lives.

Truly bracing in its border-crossing and the wide sweep of spaces it explores,Little Reef and Other Storiesis an unblinkered, wide-vista escape from New YorkLos Angeles parochialism.Tim Miller, author of1001 Beds?

These stories, keenlyeven cruellyobservant, occupy the verges of love and death where the truest and most recklessly aware emotions abide. Romantic yet bitterly insightful, this is a solid, smart collection.Joy Williams, author ofHonored Guest

A riveting collection. Casually confessional with themea culpabanished,Little Reef and Other Storiesmakes new the much explored terrain of New York City and makes the reader feel disturbingly comfortable in unfamiliar places. Here, the dreams of the people conflict with lifes unexpected demands and watchfulness lc$