Florida is more than just fodder for hard-boiled crime novels and zany farces. This anthology of new stories and essays challenges a star-studded line up of current and former Floridians to write about the state through a literary lens, though not without the requisite weirdness. The Florida within this book contains: lightning, oil spills, road rage, a lizard tied to a balloon, swimmers, sleepwalkers, characters that love Florida, characters that hate Florida, and at least three sinkholes.
Featuring new work by: Lidia Yuknavitch, Sarah Gerard, Kevin Moffett, Laura van den Berg, Lindsay Hunter, John Brandon, Jaquira D az, Alissa Nutting & so many more
Shane Hinton has a hold on a post-apocalyptic setting in a way that would make the author of the Book of Revelation proud.
-GEORGE SINGLETON, author of Staff Picks
A mysterious condition sweeps the country, leaving its victims in a catatonic state. The power grid fails and the world goes dark. Somewhere in Florida, where the sprawling suburbs meet a dying citrus grove, a janitor at a small community radio station, an FCC field agent, and a DJ attempt to restore order and humanity. They build a radio tower to recruit survivors. As newcomers arrive and occupy the homes of the affected, a community grows and thrives. But when supplies dwindle and more people succumb to the condition, a doomsday preacher arrives to test the limits of the community; and the radio tower, once seen as a marvel, begins to look like an abomination.
Radio Dark fuses Cormac McCarthy's visceral realism with Daniil Kharms' absurdist sensibility to create a uniquely surreal post-apocalyptic novel. As in Hinton's debut, Pinkies (a CLMP Firecracker Award Finalist), deadpan humor lurks just below the surface of this bleak tale.
If Kafka got it on with Flannery O' Connor, Pinkies would be their love child.
-Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Small Backs of Children
In Shane Hinton's debut story collection, gritty Florida realism collides with the absurd, and fears of fatherhood materialize in surreal scenarios. In one story, Shane Hinton struggles to protect his frightened family from cars that keep crashing into their home, while in another he's imagined as a vehicular menace. Father-to-be Shane Hinton combats roving pythons in the suburbs. Shane Hinton loves trash more than his own family. Shane Hinton throws a barbeque for all the Shane Hintons he's met on the Internet and fears he might lose his wife to one. A sharp commentary on the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, the world of Pinkies is a terrifying and hilarious introduction to an unflinching new voice.