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Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
A thrilling new voice in fiction injects the absurd into the everyday to present a startling vision of modern life, "[as] if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror" (Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad).
With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk's debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth's remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in the New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by "blots," preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection.
Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.
Ask the Author mug winners
Congrats to our BookBrowse mug winners for January! These folks very kindly stopped by the Q & A area to ask our visiting authors questions. It's very much appreciated. Kate Storey: @Holly_K Ann Bausum: @Cheryl_T Daniel Kraus: @Connie_K These folks were randomly selected from all those who asked ...
-kim.kovacs
BookBrowsers Ask Kate Storey, author of The Forgotten Book Club and The Memory Library
I'm still in awe of how much you get accomplished over the course of the year. Before we say goodbye, is there anything you'd like to cover that we haven't already touched on? Anything you'd like to tell the folks following the conversation?
-kim.kovacs
What would your Desert Island Reads be, and why? (In the context of the novel, this is a book that has meant something special to you at a particular time in your life.)
Oh, I hope you love it, too! Please let me know what you think after reading it. I did readers advisory when I worked at our local public library for 30 years & always wanted to know what folks thought of the books I suggested, good or bad, so don't hold back (but hoping you won't break my heart!)
-Carol_Ann_Robb
Frank had hundreds – perhaps thousands – of books by the time he died. What did you think of his habit of saving the books he’d read? Do you do likewise, and if so, how many books are in your home?
Yes! I think you're onto something there. Back in the day of dinosaurs, we didn't have an electronic option so people did accumulate books. And I'm sure a fair number of younger folks have a book collecting addiction as well! lol Thanks for the reply!
-Liz_B
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/27/2025)
I'm rereading Tapestry of Time in prep for Kate Heartfield stopping by in a few days. And then… GASP … I don't have anything I have to read for about two weeks! It's so rare that I can read something 100% for pleasure I'm not sure where to start (I bought a ton of books this year so I certainly h...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? (7/10/2025)
I finally broke out of my slump - what a relief! The book to do it for me was The Tapestry of Time. After I got about 25% of the way through, it completely hooked me. I don't think I would have picked it up based on the description - four clairvoyant sisters in WWII - but the author really made i...
-kim.kovacs
Reminder messages about participating in the discussion
Hi folks - As most of you know, we moved our book club discussions to a new platform at the end of last year. Well, apparently one of our internal programs didn't transfer properly - the one that keeps track of whether people who've received a book have participated in the discussion. This mornin...
-kim.kovacs
"Folk debuts with a wonderful absurdist collection that explores the vagaries of human connections...The whole perfectly balances compassion and caustics, and the author has an easy hand blending everyday terror with the humor that helps people swallow it. Folk impresses with her imagination as well as her insights." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[S]uperb...A bold, exhilarating display of talent." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Tightly constructed and spectacularly mind-bending [stories] ingeniously pair everyday challenges and outlandish predicaments, ranging from hilarious to terrifying." - Booklist (starred review)
"One could fancy Kate Folk as the literary love child of Kafka and Camus and Bradbury, if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror, but that still wouldn't capture the blazing originality and exhilarating weirdness of her writing. From the moment you read these tales, you'll know you're in the presence of a singularly brilliant vision." - Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad
"An assortment of stories so sharp and ingenious you may cut yourself on them while reading, like a drawer full of the most beautiful knives—Out There goes onto my shelf of favorite collections." - Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble
This information about Out There 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.
Kate Folk has written for publications including the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Granta, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and Zyzzyva. She's received support from the Headlands Center for the Arts, MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Recently, she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University. She lives in San Francisco. Out There is her first book.
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