Named a MOST ANTICIPATED book by Vogue, Literary Hub, The Millions, Good Housekeeping, and Oprah Daily From the prizewinning, debut fiction author: an exhilarating virtuosic story collection about women navigating the wilds of male-dominated Alaskan society. Set in Newman's home state of Alaska,
Nobody Gets Out Alive is a collection of dazzling, courageous stories about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose but the raw, exhausting legacy of their marriages and families. In "Howl Palace"--winner of
The Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize, a Best American Short Story, and Pushcart Prize selection--an aging widow struggles with a rogue hunting dog and the memories of her five ex-husbands while selling her house after bankruptcy. In the title story, "Nobody Gets Out Alive," newly married Katrina visits her hometown of Anchorage and blows up her own wedding reception by flirting with the host and running off with an enormous mastodon tusk.
Alongside stories set in today's Last Frontier--rife with suburban sprawl, global warming, and opioid addiction--Newman delves into remote wilderness of the 1970s and 80s, bringing to life young girls and single moms in search of a wilder, freer, more adventurous America. The final story takes place in a railroad camp in 1915, where an outspoken heiress stages an elaborate theatrical in order to seduce the wife of her husband's employer, revealing how this masterful storyteller is "not only writing unforgettable, brilliantly complex characters, she's somehow inventing souls" (Kimberly King Parsons, author of
Black Light).
Author: Leigh Newman
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 04/12/2022
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.80h x 5.70w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781982180300
Review Citation(s): Library Journal Prepub Alert 11/01/2021 pg. 11
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2022
Publishers Weekly 02/14/2022
Booklist 03/15/2022 pg. 43
About the Author
Leigh Newman is the author of Still Points North, a memoir about growing up in Alaska which was a finalist for the National Book Critic Circle's John Leonard Prize. Her stories have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, McSweeny's Quarterly Concern, One Story, and Electric Literature. In 2020, she was awarded The Paris Review's Terry Southern Prize, a Best American Short Story, a Pushcart Prize, and an American Society of Magazine Editors' Fiction Prize for her work in the Paris Review. Previously, she cofounded the indie press Black Balloon/Catapult where she still works as editor-at-large. Her essays, book reviews and general musings have appeared in The New York Times; Bookforum; Vogue; Real Simple; O, the Oprah Magazine; and other publications.
