First published 2015
A newlywed woman stares at the mongrel outside her window and feels certain her dead ex-boyfriend has returned to her in canine form. She feeds the dog she calls Roscoe and watches him with growing fixation. Her obsession reveals the complicated terrain these women navigate between devotion and betrayal. A phlebotomist gives away her possessions to strangers and discovers unexpected desire awakening in her body. An abused wife tends her bedridden husband and plots her revenge. These working-class women love fiercely and wound deeply. They rescue each other and abandon each other in equal measure. Campbell captures mothers and daughters locked in relationships that sustain and suffocate simultaneously. Her characters scheme and survive with equal determination. They face their troubles with dark humor and stubborn resilience. The women in these stories carry wisdom earned through hardship and cruelty learned through necessity.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, literary-fiction, family-life, contemporary, womens-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, intimate
272 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse