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In 1994, the real Mid-South Ice Storm strikes the fictitious town of Bodock in Claygardner County, Mississippi. In the wake of the storm, what is left unbroken, and what broken things can be rebuilt? Hailed by Maurice Carlos Ruffin as “leaving no feeling untouched,” Robert Busby’s debut balances grit with heart, violence with depth, and tragedy with humor.
Two siblings survey the damage to their family’s orchard after the storm while their rich nephew circles in the hopes of buying up the property. A slacker divorcee drives his ex-father-in-law to his lung transplant surgery. A cop tries to piece his broken family back together in the wake of the loss of his son. In 1816, a farmer’s wife plots with an enslaved woman to stop her husband from committing a terrible act. And in a town that is not quite Bodock, a population of ghosts reckon with their unsettled pasts.In the spirit of Brad Watson’s Last Days of the Dog-Men, Bodock traverses time and dimensions to surface the struggles of the everyday.
Bodock: Stories is the winner of the 2024 C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize.
“Spanning fable, crime, and realist literary fiction, this collection of stories leaves no feeling untouched. By capturing the nuances and complexities of these southern characters with an unfailing eye Bodock: Stories presents a universe of experience filled with darkness, humor, and desire.” —Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters
“With Bodock: Stories, Robert Busby has affixed his own postage stamp to the great and troubled state of Mississippi. The range in these eleven stories is impressive, from short-short to novella, realism to magic realism, young folk to old, historical to contemporary, white to Black, owner to enslaved—and Busby handles all skillfully and with great empathy. William Faulkner has said that to understand the world, one must understand a place like Mississippi. Well, here’s Bodock. Here’s Mississippi. Here is the world.” —Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
Robert Busby grew up in the hill country of North Mississippi and has worked as a bandsaw operator, bookseller, copywriter, driving school instructor, powder coater, prep cook, produce clerk, teacher, and satellite television technician. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, he got his MFA in Fiction from Florida International University, and his stories have appeared in Arkansas Review, Cold Mountain Review, Footnote, Mississippi Noir, PANK, Pleiades, Sou’wester, Surreal South, and others. Currently, he writes, runs, and raises two humans with his wife in Memphis, TN.