Big Bad

"Big Bad's thirteen enchanting stories lure readers into a dark wood where the mundane collides with the mysterious and the comedic merges with the catastrophic. Categorized as "domestic horror" and "flyover gothic," Collins's tales blend magic realism with real-world predicaments and feature underdogs tackling spiritual dilemmas in unremarkable locales: cheap motels, nail salons, tiki bars. From a widower who kills a horse en route to his grandson's circumcision to a mother who morphs into a giant clam to avoid domesticity, all of Big Bad's characters must repeatedly choose to fight or flee the big, bad wolf within. Winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, and boasting a 2020 Pushcart Prizewinner, Big Bad simultaneously entertains and disconcerts"--