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Witty and surprising, George Singleton’s latest short fiction collection welcomes both new and longtime readers with his signature offbeat humor, perfect for fans of George Saunders and Jill McCorkle
A seasoned house flipper befriends a club of hook-handed, shuffleboard-playing war veterans to deter a potential stalker. A couple in a middle-of-nowhere ghost town quells their boredom by luring would-be robbers to their house. A former yearbook photographer enacts revenge upon the students who got him fired. And a fallen-from-grace comedian pays a visit to the hypnotist looking to curb his less-desirable habits, then finds the treatment a bit too effective for his liking.
Crafted with Singleton’s distinctive mix of satire and charm, the stories in Wounded Boarders take readers from binocular-clad boyhood to the inbox of an adjunct professor and a host of others at the end of their rope. Undeniably Southern in nature, these stories capture the absurdity of the mundane, offering a glimpse into the routines and recollections of imperfect people whose lives are stranger than fiction.
"From the well-known Southern humorist, another fun house gallery of small-town misfits at the ends of their tethers. As the nation’s, and the region’s, politics get ever more divided and mean, Singleton’s satire grows darker and sharper. Yet what makes it work, as always, is an essential sweetness and decency...A Southern comic master in top form."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Singleton shows himself to be a sort of literary Rembrandt, playing with shadow and light in subtle and unforgettable angles, delighting in all the ways something ordinary becomes spectacular."—Christine Ma-Kellams, The Colorado Review
George Singleton has published ten collections of stories, two novels, a book of writing advice, and a collection of essays. Over 250 of his stories have appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Esquire, Story, One Story, Playboy, and elsewhere. Non-fiction in Garden and Gun, Oxford American, Best Food Writing, and elsewhere. He’s received a Pushcart Prize, and a Guggenheim fellowship. His collection The Curious Lives of Nonprofit Martyrs was named a Top 100 Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, he lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina.