Elephants in Our Bedroom
Michael Czyzniejewski
Release Date: February 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0979312373
Price: $16.95
eBook Price: $7.99
Click here to read an excerpt of Elephants in Our Bedroom.
DESCRIPTION
Hapless, yes, but uncannily familiar—such are the people who move through the stories in Michael Czyzniejewski’s debut fiction collection. The characters are people we know—maybe they’re the people we are—and because of this we can’t help but wonder how or if their troubles will be resolved. It would seem we don’t hold out much hope for these folks—but in fact, we do, and fervently.
ADVANCE PRAISE
“Both wry-funny and absurd-funny, plunging into the everyday and the outrageous—here’s a bouquet of bright and fun-to-read stories.” —Aimee Bender, author of Willful Creatures
“Michael Czyzniejewski’s stories are funny and edgy and fantastical. But what sets them apart from every other book with the word ‘fantastical’ on the cover—what makes these stories original and real—is the for-real, beating heart behind each and every word. These stories might include octogenarian parrots, elephants looming in the corners of bedrooms, a thing called sleepmurder, but at heart they deal with the hopes and dreams and fears of everyday lives.” —Dave Housley, author of Ryan Seacrest is Famous
“Each of these innovative stories is an absolute joy to read. Some are brutally moving, others are whimsical and lighthearted, and all of them shimmer with the refracted light of truth. Michael Czyzniejewski is a literary ventriloquist, a deeply gifted writer capable of countless voices, and Elephants in Our Bedroom is a dazzling collection.” —Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Corpus Christi: Stories
REVIEWS
"Some stories are more whimsical and light-hearted than others, some quite dark and grave, taking on situations of loss, heartbreak, and suicide. Then there are some so fantastical one marvels at how skillfully he manages to keep the reader so firmly there, believing every word. All of the tales in this brilliant, quiet book are wrought from an enormous heart. And all refract and reflect a new kind illumination from the ordinary experiences of everyday love and intimacy." —Ready Steady Book
"The stories in his collection have the sort of postmodern magic that we used to see in writers like Robert Coover or Donald Barthleme, but Michael Czyzniejewski makes that magic new again by spinning it in the everyday world, the familiar world, of children and husbands and wives, of city streets and schools and libraries, bedrooms and kitchens and backyards." —Polish American Studies