Fragile Objects

by Katy Carl

In these stories, characters’ bodies trouble their souls, stirring questions about why we are here and how we are to live. Confronted by their own vulnerabilities, they must also contend with the weaknesses of those they want to love. Will they find their trust well placed; will they rise to moments of grace—or will their lives crack under pressure? These stories seek to do justice in art to the human condition’s real, though fleeting, gifts—to our much-explored, but only ever partially understood, potential for comic resolution, tragic failure, and the substance of things hoped for between the two.

Advance “Authentic, meaningful fiction [can] only be created by writers who love[ ] their characters—in all of their follies, paradoxes, and sins. Katy Carl loves her characters.”—Nick Ripatrazone, Culture Editor of Image Journal“Katy Carl has mastered the art of short fiction. Every single story in this collection lands—maybe in the gut, or right beneath the ribs, somehow always finding that buried place in us that needs healing. With unflinching honesty and tenderness, Katy Carl’s stories expose the hardness of the human heart, as well as its terrible to pain, yes, but also to love. These are stories that pry you open, that reverberate beyond the final word.”—Abigail Favale, author of The Genesis of Gender

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 12, 2023