Catapult - Emily Fridlund

'A powerhouse of a first story collection notable for its temerity and its skilled combination of humour and insight'

New York Times Book Review

The unknowable wisdom of a baby; two teenagers with plans to build a time machine;the unnerving relationship between a man and his dangerous dog; a bumpy reunion between two childhood friends . . . These are stories about how people grow together and pull apart, the strangeness of lives lived at close quarters. Envy, distrust, confidence, collusion, hope - in this remarkable collection, Emily Fridlund delves into the small lies and large truths that make up our lives.

Selected by Ben Marcus as winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction

Emily Fridlund grew up in Minnesota. She holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Her collection of stories, Catapult, was chosen by Ben Marcus for the Mary McCarthy Prize. She lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. History of Wolves is her first novel.

Emily Fridlund's language is generous and precise, her story grief-tempered and forcefully moving. History of Wolves is the loneliest thing I've read in years, and it's gorgeous. These are haunted pages
Leif Enger on HISTORY OF WOLVES

So delicately calibrated and precisely beautiful that one might not immediately sense the sledgehammer of pain building inside this book. And I mean that in the best way. What powerful tension and depth
Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake on HISTORY OF WOLVES

As exquisite a first novel as I've ever encountered. Poetic, complex and utterly, heartbreakingly beautiful
T. C. Boyle, author of The Harder They Come on HISTORY OF WOLVES

One of the most intelligent and poetic novels of the year
NEW STATESMAN on HISTORY OF WOLVES

Fridlund is a fine writer and her work is cut through with moments of sparse beauty
FINANCIAL TIMES on HISTORY OF WOLVES

Eleven stories of misshapen families and broken friendships disturb and unsettle. Fridlund follows History of Wolves, her marvelous and preternaturally accomplished first novel, with a collection of jarring and polished short fiction. Bracing, often brilliant stories deliver a shock to the routine narratives we tell
Kirkus reviews (starred review)

Eleven brilliant short stories showcase childhood, adolescence, marriage, and families, and how the appearances of these events and relationships in life can hide the strangeness and emptiness that pervade beneath the surface. . . . Fridlund unpacks these situations with such thoughtful diction and complex characters that her subdued and controlled language sets what is unsaid at the fore, unveiling hope, despair, and the paradoxes that are often ignored in such close relationships. Fridlund's intelligent and conversational voice impressively manipulates the emotional atmosphere of her stories
Booklist (starred review)

Fridlund's ability to conjure humor in the darkest moments is clear in her blending of sitcom
set-ups with bleak undercurrents. Her breathtaking prose and sly expressions make for compulsive
reading

Publishers Weekly

Magical . . . Memorable and a joy to read
Library Journal

A powerhouse of a first story collection notable for its temerity and its skilled combination of humor and insight . . . this is - seriously - a laugh-out-loud collection as wise as it is funny
New York Times