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In this collection of compact fictions, Nicolette Polek transports us to a gently unsettling realm inhabited by disheveled landlords, a fugitive bride, a seamstress who forgets what people look like, and two rival falconers from neighboring towns.
They find themselves in bathhouses, sports bars, grocery stores, and forests in search of exits, pink tennis balls, licorice, and independence. Yet all of her beautifully strange characters are possessed by a familiar and human longing for connection: to their homes, families, God, and themselves.
"[D]eliciously unnerving...Polek's collection is a surprising and potent catalogue of small, eerie discoveries." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Polek offers an enjoyable balance of light and dark subject matter, sweet and bitter characters, cuddly and cruel moments...She has immense talent for sudden, quietly affecting turns of phrase, luminous details, and word choices that firmly pin images down...A moving, impressively varied first collection." - Kirkus Reviews
"Nicolette Polek's stories are little circuses of wonder and surprise. They make me feel wide awake. Plus Imaginary Museums is really pleasingly full of stuff: you've got hairpin narrative turns, unexpected drownings, saltshakers, trapdoors, chain saws, vodka. In one of my favorite stories, a bluebird sees the main character, but she never sees the bird. Imaginary Museums is delightfully alive." - Danielle Dutton, author of Margaret the First and SPRAWL
"There's the sense that anything can happen in the stories of Imaginary Museums―a book full of surprising turns, fascinating characters, and perfect endings. The timelessness of Nicolette Polek's voice is a wonder, and it will stay with you long after reading." - Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else
"What are these? Weird parables? Dark dreams? Warnings about the afterlife, death, marriage? Like the best writers, Polek is willing to go to a disturbing place and stay there. She will not save our hero. She will join the shadowy forces and lead us in." - Deb Olin Unferth, author of Wait Till You See Me Dance and Revolution
"Like little crystalline shards, these wonderfully subtle, often laconic stories suddenly catch the light and cast it in unexpected, profoundly revealing directions. A quirky, startling debut." - Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World
This information about Imaginary Museums was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nicolette Polek is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She is a recipient of the 2019 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.
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