meg’s staff picks
Meghan (she/her) has worked at Lost City since 2022. Before that, she did things like farming, being a barista, working in libraries, teaching creative writing, and spending all her money on books. Her favorite animals include cats, dogs, squirrels, and sloths. She is also the host of the Small Press book club.
JANUARY by Sara Gallardo
This book is short, swift, heart-wrenching, perfect. A young girl in rural Argentina discovers an unwanted pregnancy, and we are with her through the shifting, tumultuous interior landscape that follows. Denial, fear, anger, wonder, desperation, resolve. Absolutely crushing, and exquisitely written. Published in 1958, it was recently translated into English and feels disturbingly timely. To be read in the middle of a hot oppressive summer.
EARLY SOBRIETIES by Michael Deagler
Funny and raucous, both crushing and exhilarating, this novel is narrated by a recovering alcoholic whose nickname is “Monk.” He couch-surfs his way around South Philadelphia, haunted and awed by the specter of who he was back when he was drinking. His friends and acquaintances are weird, rude, generous, fascinating, sometimes frightening. His observations are understated and profound. This was one of my favorite things I read this year.
THE WALL by Marlen Haushofer
For all the introverts and homebodies who ever secretly wished * just a little bit * that everyone else would disappear so they could live alone in the woods with a dog and a cat for company and not be bothered… The narrator of this novel discovers that the world has stopped and she might be the last person alive. The rest of her life, alone in the Austrian Alps, is by turns blissful and nightmarish. As the forces of nature, time, and solitude erode everything she once believed to be true, a new perspective emerges. I plan to reread this many times to experience anew the clarity, peace, and amazement.
THE WALLCREEPER by Nell Zink
This book is funny — and distressing. It hurts to read. Bad things happen. Everything is narrated in the strangest tone: matter-of-fact but cryptic, ironic and genuine at the same time. This is one of those books that comforts me by discomforting me.
DOGS OF SUMMER by Andrea Abreu
This book is beautiful, brutal, kind of gross, incredibly endearing, and it broke my heart. It takes place over one rugged, cloudy summer on the island of Tenerife, where two young girls mean everything to each other.
THE VISITING PRIVILEGE by Joy Williams
Most of these stories leave me with a resounding WTF. And that's exactly what I look for in a short story collection! If you, too, enjoy the sensation of breathtaking weirdness, being reminded of the absurdity of your existence, etc., read Joy Williams.