Catch, Release

by Adrianne Harun

The latest electrifying collection from acclaimed novelist and short story writer Adrianne Harun. Grand Price Winner, 2019 Eric Hoffer Book Award It’s all about loss. Don’t kid yourself. Even a simple game of catch is hinged on the moment the ball leaves the glove, the moment it returns. Don’t even try to think this story or any other story is about something else. In Catch, Release , Adrianne Harun’s second story collection, loss is the driver. But it’s less the usual somber shadow-figure of grieving than an erratically interesting cousin, unmoored, even exhilarated, by the sudden flight into emptiness, the freedom of being neither here nor there. In this suspended state, anything might happen—and it does. Harun’s most realistic stories are suffused with mystery, while her more fantastic tales reveal startling truths within the commonplace. In diverse settings that include, among other places, a British Columbian island, a haunted Midwestern farmhouse, a London townhome, and a dementia care facility overpopulated with dangerously idle guardian angels, characters reconfigure whole worlds as they navigate states defined by absence. In "The Farmhouse Wife," a young couple, struggling financially, takes up residence in a near-abandoned farmhouse, only to be joined by an inconvenient roommate, a woman whose own bereft state proves perilously seductive. A kleptomaniac father gets caught in one of his petty thefts in "Pearl Diving," propelling his two sons out of one life into another, perhaps more appropriate, one. In "Madame Ida," a family of little girls steadily invades a woman’s life as she puzzles out the mysteries of a missing sheriff-turned-cult-leader and the absence of her own son. And in the title story, two teenagers face off against the hurtful lies of an ancient con woman who is mining a widow’s grief for her own ends. Adrianne Harun has been described as an exacting and attentive stylist whose stories are rendered in vivid language. The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote of her "Harun finds beauty in pitch black; she makes poetry out of brutality and grace out of terror. She is an alchemist, turning the worst aspects of life into gold." With Catch, Release , Harun upends the world once more.

Genres: Short Stories

240 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

About the author

Adrianne Harun is the author of two short story collections,The King of Limbo, a Washington State Book Award finalist, and Catch, Release, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award. Stories from her collections have been listed as Notable in both Best American Short Stories and Best American Mystery Stories. Her first novel, A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain, was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award, a finalist for both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award and the Washington State Book Award and winner of a Pinckley Prize for Debut Crime Fiction. Her second novel, On the Way to the End of the World, will be published in September 2023.

A long-time resident of Port Townsend, Washington, Adrianne ran a garage, Motorsport, with the legendary Alistair Scovil for many years.

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I nearly missed the release of this collection, although I am always anticipating the next Adrianne Harun book. I find her work full of dark yearning, and this pulls me in with ease. CATCH, RELEASE is about loss, as the back cover promises. But in that loss, there is so much discovery. At the moment that I write this, my favorite story in this collection is "The New Arrival." Highly recommended.

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never read this author before so was unfamiliar with her work. I chose the book due to the description of one of her short stories about bored guardian angels in a nursing home. All of the stories were interesting, her writing is very sharp, descriptions clear & fresh. As with most collections, there were some stories I liked better than others, but they all made me think. Some were a bit disturbing, all had unusual premises. I did like the guardian angel story, am kind of undecided on whether I would read more of her work.

[Lisa Sellge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection pitches fast-balls one after the other. Death and stealing recur. Reading feels like a chase with the narrator always one long and fast stride ahead of you. "Farmhouse Wife" : Shirley Jackson's brand of horror. Mesmerizing, sentence by sentence. I blew off work for an hour in the middle of the day. "Sisters" reminds me of Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides) and Pearl Diving needs to be read twice to appreciate. Don't miss this one for short, gut-punching escapes.

[Miles Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books, and one of the most underrated authors. The insights into the lives of almost normal people are so striking in the way they reflect who we are and what he hate to see in ourselves. I think it’s Harun’s best work and an all time favorite.