Wonderful Girl

Aimee LaBrie

Winner of Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction

Narrated by Tracy Hundley

Available from Audible

Book published by University of North Texas Press

This extraordinary first collection of short stories covers the landscape of dysfunctional childhood, urban angst, and human disconnection with a wit and insight that keep you riveted. The characters here have rich and imaginative interior lives, but grave difficulty relating to the outside world. The beginning story, "Ducklings", introduces the overweight and over-enthusiastic Marjorie, the last 12-year-old you would want babysitting your toddler. In "Wanted" we meet Eleanor, a single girl living in Chicago who may or may not be dating a serial killer. "Another Cancer Story" is an unsentimental account of two sisters whose beloved mother just won't seem to die, and "The Last Dead Boyfriend" gives us a recovering addict who keeps encountering her recently deceased boyfriend, an unpleasant man she wished she'd broken up with before he died.

Always funny, often dark, and wholly satisfying, these stories explore the longing for connection among characters who are frequently stricken with anxiety. Each story is rendered in a way that is surreal, vivid, and entirely convincing.

Aimee LaBrie received her MFA in fiction from Pennsylvania State University in 2003. The short story "Ducklings" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

REVIEWS:

“Wonderful Girl is a smart, funny collection, by turns poignant, mysterious, terrifying, sexy, often just plain nuts (in a good way!). Reading Wonderful Girl is like meeting a dozen new friends, people you instantly fret over, want to know better, want to call and give advice, bring home to meet your folks, people you ultimately love.”

—Bill Roorbach, author of The Smallest Color