Day Care: Stories

by Nora Lange

From award-winning author Nora Lange comes a ransacking of the house of motherhood and matrimony.

Nora Lange’s debut novel, Us Fools, was praised as the “Great American Novel” by Molly Young in The New York Times, and “a razor-sharp critique of American capitalism” by Michael Schaub at NPR. Now, she turns her eye toward the daily exercise of getting by.

In “Heart Beats,” Carol and David arrive late to a Boston dinner party for a night of “messy socializing” with other couples, including a former cult-leader turned financial-advisor and a woman who learned of a “kinky sort of game” while riding public transit, details that she will reveal after the peach crumble. In “Island of Phaetons,” an expatriate living in Istanbul is called away from her daily life with “the husband” and “the friend who wanted more than friendship” to visit her mother, who notoriously makes bad decisions, and who has just arrived in Greece “with news” for her daughter, a tantalizing invitation that has her daughter immediately on a plane. In “Dog Star,” two figurines live out their dreams before succumbing to the truth that they have been assembled inside of a snow globe and will never go anywhere. In the title story, a new mother in Los Angeles navigates a job, a long-distance relationship with her husband, and her visiting mother, while hoping to find relief in daytime app sex.

These stories of lust, estrangement, and self-preservation are at once hilarious and savage. Day Care is a biting reflection on economic precarity, love, and peeing your pants.

Genres: Short Stories

216 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2026

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s a lot to admire here: short stories that favor sexual tension over plot and ambiguity over resolution. I love the way Lange links her stories with signs and symbols to suggest the faintest of continuities. Who needs a shared universe of characters and settings when a banana will do the trick?

[Betsy Robinson]

The blurb phrase that made me want to read this collection was "savage and hilarious." Savage is idiosyncratically correct, and I did have a few laughs. But mostly this collection is the equivalent of staring for a long time at an abstract painting of domesticity and life. I was left with feelings more than memories or even reactions to individual plots. The stories are more slice of raw human feelings in life trapped in bodies on an inhospitable and uninviting planet. Some were dreamlike or so spacy they seemed that way. Occasionally I could relate and appreciate the writing, but I never plugged in emotionally. If asked to recount individual stories, I'd draw a blank. They disappeared almost as fast as I finished them.

[cece]

DNF. I tried to like the stories and the first page I read in my library made me think this book would be a great fit. However, the first couple stories I read were sad/angsty and honestly the whole vibe felt "faux-intellectual". I believe Lange knows how to write, I didn't need to her to try to prove it to me at every sentence.

[Lindsay Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is no one more free or more brilliant than Nora Lange.

[Kelsey Allen]

female John Cheever vibes

"on her own time, she labored to convince herself that the mundane, the inappropriately, excessively lackluster—soiled diapers, pumping while Googling trash pick-up schedules—was enough to feel awake."

[C Ayers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nora Lange is a stunning writer. These stories are beautifully written and I do see some of the uncanny strangeness of Joy Williams here. A brave voice. Everyone should read Nora Lange.

[Lisa McKenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a Jenny Offill.
I guess I’d hoped it would be?
Not for me.

[Rae Bar · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t finish Us Fools so I’m not sure why I thought I’d like this book of short stories any better. It didn’t help that I did the audiobook and narrator sounds like AI. She’s not. I checked.

[Lennon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting collection of short stories. Weirdly matter-of-fact in a very satisfying way.

[rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

like most short story collections, this one had its highs and lows. “Dog Star” was my absolute favorite—something about that otherworldly, dreamlike quality that i try to capture in my own writing…Lange’s immersive worldbuilding in such few pages is admirable. definitely enjoyed most of the others and i liked the collection overall, but there were also a few forgettable ones. solid four stars