-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Lydia Mathis
From a ferocious new talent, a debut story collection excavating the desire, humor, and horror in the everyday lives of Black women and girls—for readers of Deesha Philyaw and Kelly Link.
With a voice that vibrates on the page, Lydia Mathis' debut collection is set in the American South and her sharply drawn, authentic characters shine a light on what we're willing to do to ourselves and to others in service of our desires. The madness in the ordinary rules here: an overworked college safety officer is confronted by a bloody figure who walks into her office; a sex worker runs into a client en route to a parent-teacher conference; a teacher is plagued by a ghost determined to tidy her apartment.
Desperate Bodies depicts the fragility, strength, and unruliness of Black women and girls' bodies and the power in being honest about their desires. In unflinching prose, Mathis takes a frank and determined look at what it means to be subjected to imbalances of power through the perspectives of young girls and adult women. With surprising turns and a touch of the supernatural, these stories refuse to look away from the most honest, raw moments of womanhood.
Visceral and unyielding, Desperate Bodies is a thrillingly dark ride that introduces Lydia Mathis as a major new writer.
"Lydia Mathis's stunning debut collection broke my heart from the very first page ... then proceeded to take me on the wildest ride of my reading life. These exquisitely written stories are fresh, audacious, and tender. Desperate Bodies is literary shock and awe at its finest." —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Confessions of First Lady Freeman and The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
"Mathis's stories have an easy resonance, a tangible signature one can recognize, delight in, and mourn with as they move through the body, creating a stunning gravity that lingers long after the last word." —Dantiel W. Moniz, author of Milk Blood Heat
This information about Desperate Bodies 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.
Lydia Mathis has an MFA in fiction from New York University. She earned her BA in English Literature with a minor in Classical Civilizations from Agnes Scott College. She has worked as a teacher for Teach for America in Memphis and as a teaching fellow at Coler-Goldwater Hospital in New York City. She is the recipient of A Public Space's 2023 Editorial Fellowship and is currently an assistant editor at A Public Space. She has stories published in North American Review, Southeast Review, Torch Magazine, Stanchion, Five on the Fifth, and oranges journal. She is based in Atlanta, GA.
If you liked Desperate Bodies, try these:
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
