The Mutual UFO Network
Lee Martin
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Martin has written a not-to-be-missed masterwork of slow-burning emotions. -Booklist Starred Review In The Mutual UFO Network, Pulitzer Prize finalist and master of the craft Lee Martin presents his first short story collection since his acclaimed debut The Least You Need to Know. With Martin's signature insight, each story peers into the nooks and crannies of seemingly normal homes, communities, and families. The footprints of a midnight prowler peel back the veneer of a marriage soured by a long-ago affair. A con man selling faked UFO footage loses his wife to the promise of life outside the ordinary. And a troubled man, tormented by his own mind, lies in the street to look at the stars, and in doing so unravels the carefully constructed boundaries between his quiet neighbors. From friendship and family to all forms of love, The Mutual UFO Network explores the intricacies of relationships and the possibility for redemption in even the most complex misfits and loners.
Product Details
Price
$26.95
$25.06
Publisher
Dzanc Books
Publish Date
June 12, 2018
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.8 X 8.6 X 0.9 inches | 0.9 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781945814495
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About the Author
Lee Martin was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for The Bright Forever and is author of the novels River of Heaven, Break the Skin, and Late One Night.
Reviews
Praise for The Mutual UFO Network "Martin has written a not-to-be-missed masterwork of slow-burning emotions." --Booklist starred review
"A superb story collection that brims with tragedy and compassion." --Shelf Awareness starred review
"With no irony or judgment, Martin peers into the lives of ordinary families and communities, and shines a light on the secrets that we all keep too deep in our hearts to ever speak them...a solid and satisfying short-story collection that pays homage to all facets and stages of life, the light and the dark, the bitter and the sweet."
-The Coil
"Quiet traumas and long-festering emotional wounds abound in this collection...With precise storytelling, Martin chronicles the unrest in his characters' lives and the shocking moments when tensions reach their breaking points."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Martin cleverly exposes the fractures between husbands and wives, family and friends, in these twelve excellent stories of people lying to themselves because the truth is too painful to admit...a vivid, emotionally precise collection."
-Publishers Weekly
"We know these characters, distant literary cousins of the lonely men and women brought to life by Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and Richard Ford. ... Martin's in full control of both the rhythm and blues in each story. He is the craftsman, the master architect, and those skills and Martin's adherence to his primary mission -- to tell a story worth telling -- are what make this collection so thrilling."
-PopMatters
"Martin favors the wanderers--those navigating the untidy shambles of lost love, of families cracked and broken apart, of past and present sins. The collection contemplates galactic questions of life and death as easily as it telescopes into the most intimate and regular sorrows of humanity."
--Crazyhorse
"The Mutual UFO Network explores the complexity of human relationships, which is as terrifying, strange, and incomprehensible as any extraterrestrial lifeform....Martin's stories are not a quick-to-the-point affair; they are like his prose: long, savory, complex affairs that are meant to evoke as much joy as empathy. The takeaway is that location does not thwart misfortune, that people who two-step are as relatable as those who floss. We are all human."
--The Coachella Review
"A superb story collection that brims with tragedy and compassion." --Shelf Awareness starred review
"With no irony or judgment, Martin peers into the lives of ordinary families and communities, and shines a light on the secrets that we all keep too deep in our hearts to ever speak them...a solid and satisfying short-story collection that pays homage to all facets and stages of life, the light and the dark, the bitter and the sweet."
-The Coil
"Quiet traumas and long-festering emotional wounds abound in this collection...With precise storytelling, Martin chronicles the unrest in his characters' lives and the shocking moments when tensions reach their breaking points."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Martin cleverly exposes the fractures between husbands and wives, family and friends, in these twelve excellent stories of people lying to themselves because the truth is too painful to admit...a vivid, emotionally precise collection."
-Publishers Weekly
"We know these characters, distant literary cousins of the lonely men and women brought to life by Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and Richard Ford. ... Martin's in full control of both the rhythm and blues in each story. He is the craftsman, the master architect, and those skills and Martin's adherence to his primary mission -- to tell a story worth telling -- are what make this collection so thrilling."
-PopMatters
"Martin favors the wanderers--those navigating the untidy shambles of lost love, of families cracked and broken apart, of past and present sins. The collection contemplates galactic questions of life and death as easily as it telescopes into the most intimate and regular sorrows of humanity."
--Crazyhorse
"The Mutual UFO Network explores the complexity of human relationships, which is as terrifying, strange, and incomprehensible as any extraterrestrial lifeform....Martin's stories are not a quick-to-the-point affair; they are like his prose: long, savory, complex affairs that are meant to evoke as much joy as empathy. The takeaway is that location does not thwart misfortune, that people who two-step are as relatable as those who floss. We are all human."
--The Coachella Review
