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Any Other Place
A Korean woman in rural Kentucky clings to the love found in her new marriage as the mountain above her washes away.
A dutiful daughter struggles to help her father navigate their shared grief―and the sudden release of dangerous, exotic animals.
A new father driven by his pride confronts Japanese soldiers in a harrowing raid on his home.
In his debut collection, Michael Croley takes us from the Appalachian regions of rural Kentucky and Ohio to a village in South Korea in thirteen engaging stories in which characters find themselves, wherever they are, in states of displacement. In these settings, Croley guides his characters to some semblance of home, where they circle each other's pain, struggle to find belonging, and make sense of the mistakes and bad breaks that have brought them there. Croley uses his absorbing prose to uncover his characters’ hidden disquiet and to bring us a remarkable and unique collection that expands the scope of modern American literature.
A dutiful daughter struggles to help her father navigate their shared grief―and the sudden release of dangerous, exotic animals.
A new father driven by his pride confronts Japanese soldiers in a harrowing raid on his home.
In his debut collection, Michael Croley takes us from the Appalachian regions of rural Kentucky and Ohio to a village in South Korea in thirteen engaging stories in which characters find themselves, wherever they are, in states of displacement. In these settings, Croley guides his characters to some semblance of home, where they circle each other's pain, struggle to find belonging, and make sense of the mistakes and bad breaks that have brought them there. Croley uses his absorbing prose to uncover his characters’ hidden disquiet and to bring us a remarkable and unique collection that expands the scope of modern American literature.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 23, 2019
19 people are currently reading
1493 people want to read
About the author
Michael Croley
6 books52 followersMichael Croley was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Literature in 2016, his work has appeared in a number of publications. His debut collection of stories, Any Other Place, will appear in 2019. He teaches creative writing at Denison University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
March 18, 2019
The title of this collection of thirteen stories is fitting, and I thought it reflected a dual meaning. Some of the characters wouldn’t want to be any other place than the place they where they grew up and some would rather be in any other place but there. Home and family and belonging or not feeling as if you belong are recurring themes and the town of Fordyce, Kentucky recurs, where a number of the stories take place. I had several favorites. “Two Strangers” is the story of a doctor who comes back to his home town, Fordyce after his high school best friend dies and leaves him everything including his little girl. “Larger than the Sea” is the moving story of a Korean woman who makes a sacrifice to save her husband and child during the Japanese occupation . “Passings in the Night” is also a touching story of a father and son whose relationship has always been at odds, held together by the wife and mother. What happens after she passes away is the focus of the story. There were a few that left me at the end of them asking - what , there isn’t more? I was left with that feeling that it was just too short. Having said that, I enjoyed all but a few of these well written stories.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Blair through Edelweiss.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Blair through Edelweiss.
October 8, 2025
A great collection of short stories. Each one grabs you quickly. General themes of leaving a small town and returning later, challenging relationships, etc. Wish he had more! Highly recommend !
August 10, 2020
If you are from Eastern Ky or have lived there any part of your life you will find this book resonating with your experience. The book, a series of short stories all bringing to life parts of the culture of mostly eastern Kentucky.
October 7, 2019
This book is very well written. The themes were simply not what I wanted to read.
May 3, 2020
Michael Croley's debut short story collection, Any Other Place is the sort of book that I wish my high school english teachers had required us to read. Better yet, I wish I had Croley is an instructor. The stories take palace in Fordyce, Kentucky, the fictional representation of a small town in the Southesastern part of the state most famously known as the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a race riot of 1919 in which a white mob forced all of the town's 200 African American residents on to a freight train headed for Knoxville. Croley, the son of an Appalachian father and Korean mother reminds us that you can never really walk away from your history. The dynamics of a small town are shared in an understated, economical writing style where the characters are outsiders sharing their insider perspective that there is something in each situation that isn't quite right. He really draw the reader into a sensor of trouble in each story. These are beautifully written stories about ordinary people. My favorite are Diamond Dust, The Beginnings of a Storm and Two Strangers. Highly recommended.
February 27, 2020
Had the privilege to meet and get this book signed by the author, after he chatted with my table at this year's Moveable Feast event. Glad he convinced me to buy his book-- enjoyed many of these. Solid Ground was my favorite.
February 11, 2022
I really enjoyed how this book was broken up into a bunch of different stories. Each one was complex and stood well on their own. Together they form an interesting overview of the struggles that people encounter in all stages of life.
May 7, 2020
Thirteen strong and memorable stories, solid, well imagined and well written. My favorites are "Diamond Dust," "Passing Shadows," and "Solid Ground."
June 23, 2025
Such a great collection of short stories! I found this book on Book Riot's list of "15 Books About Appalachia to Read Instead of HILLBILLY ELEGY," and I'm so glad I gave it a chance!
I'm new to reading collections of short stories, so I was skeptical at first. However, I was drawn to the book because it was written by a Korean American man who grew up in Appalachia, and I was interested in his take on belonging in rural Appalachia. I think I was expecting it to be more like Tommy Orange's "There, There," where all of the short stories directly converge into one over-arching story, but it was truly a set of distinct stories, where only two of the stories shared a character.
While the stories didn't directly connect, they shared several themes of reconciling familial, romantic, and geographic love with the hardships that come with living in under-resourced areas. As someone who grew up in a rural community in the South (U.S.) I could relate to the heavy decisions characters in the stories have to make about staying at home, leaving home, or returning home. Each story left me wanting to read further, as they addressed challenging topics and featured interesting, deeply developed characters.
In some ways, the stories occasionally felt too slow-paced or gloomy, but that's just a matter of personal preference. The author did a great job capturing much of life's grittiness, and not every author does this in a way that still makes a book enjoyable to read. I hope to have the chance to read a novel by Michael Croley someday in the future, if he ever writes one because I can imagine I'd enjoy his long-form stories even more.
I'm new to reading collections of short stories, so I was skeptical at first. However, I was drawn to the book because it was written by a Korean American man who grew up in Appalachia, and I was interested in his take on belonging in rural Appalachia. I think I was expecting it to be more like Tommy Orange's "There, There," where all of the short stories directly converge into one over-arching story, but it was truly a set of distinct stories, where only two of the stories shared a character.
While the stories didn't directly connect, they shared several themes of reconciling familial, romantic, and geographic love with the hardships that come with living in under-resourced areas. As someone who grew up in a rural community in the South (U.S.) I could relate to the heavy decisions characters in the stories have to make about staying at home, leaving home, or returning home. Each story left me wanting to read further, as they addressed challenging topics and featured interesting, deeply developed characters.
In some ways, the stories occasionally felt too slow-paced or gloomy, but that's just a matter of personal preference. The author did a great job capturing much of life's grittiness, and not every author does this in a way that still makes a book enjoyable to read. I hope to have the chance to read a novel by Michael Croley someday in the future, if he ever writes one because I can imagine I'd enjoy his long-form stories even more.
July 11, 2019
I can't recommend this collection highly enough. Mike is a friend and one of my best teachers, but even if he was none of these things, I'd be saying the same thing about this collection. There's a beautiful sense of place and temporality in each story that makes you feel the same sort of joy and sadness that you get with major life events--birth, weddings, death--and Mike excels as distilling the simplest image into emotional truth. The stories are loosely interconnected. If I had to pick favorites, "Slope" and "Smoulders," both featuring the character of Wren, stand out, both because Wren is in many ways and every man and in many ways highly specific, unique and precious. I love the plural narrators of "Diamond Dust" and the situational, small-town absurdity of "Solid Ground" and "Satellites." Don't sleep on this one.
January 26, 2021
I enjoyed the themes in this short story collection. Each character was plagued by their own problems and relationships and struggled with the idea of home and leaving the place they grew up in in order to be somewhere, anywhere else they thought they should be rather than always want to be. I am familiar with this feeling, so many of the character's stories resonated with me. My favorites of the bunch were "Two Strangers," "The World's Fair," "Siler, Kentucky, 1970" and "Satellites." "Solid Ground" was quite disturbing and haunting, and I might have enjoyed that character and her story most of all.
May 12, 2022
My mother and I were fortunate enough to meet the author and have him sign the book when he spoke at Novel back when I lived in Memphis. I attended several of the author appearances at Novel, and Michael Croley was by far the best. His selected reading was simply unforgettable.
Michael Croley is very well written and more importantly he is very well read. I admit there were a handful of stories I didn't care for, but overall I give this collection 5/5. The good stories more than make up for the lesser ones. This book has become somewhat of a tradition in our family, and we will always cherish our favorite stories of the bunch.
Michael Croley is very well written and more importantly he is very well read. I admit there were a handful of stories I didn't care for, but overall I give this collection 5/5. The good stories more than make up for the lesser ones. This book has become somewhat of a tradition in our family, and we will always cherish our favorite stories of the bunch.
September 1, 2020
A beautiful collection of stories that I felt like put emotions into words better than anything I’ve read recently. In such short stories I felt like I understood the grief and loneliness of each character and their searches for connection and meaning. I felt like each character was as real and flawed as a genuine human and loved how the stories overlapped across time and characters. I’m also always a sucker for books about home and belonging and trying to understand why we feel connected to where we are from. A beautiful read!!
May 18, 2019
Stories about missed connections, regret, loneliness, and loss.
The writing is careful and emotive. In some passages, Croley reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Amy Hempel, with his economy of language. Like Hempel, each story vibrantly creates a nuanced set of characters who drew me in. Croley creates a visceral sense of place in this collection, so much so that Kentucky (and Korea) become a character that I cared about as much as the people that inhabited these areas.
The writing is careful and emotive. In some passages, Croley reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Amy Hempel, with his economy of language. Like Hempel, each story vibrantly creates a nuanced set of characters who drew me in. Croley creates a visceral sense of place in this collection, so much so that Kentucky (and Korea) become a character that I cared about as much as the people that inhabited these areas.
May 1, 2025
13 short stories, most of which are set in a small town in the mountains of Kentucky. Each one felt very different with strong characters who struggled with loneliness, longing, uncertainty and regret. Especially enjoyed the story “World’s Fair”, “Two Strangers”, and probably the most haunting for me was “Diamond Dust”. I’d be interested in reading more from the author, and I especially loved the setting.
July 1, 2019
These are the stories that make me think, "I could write that." These are things I've seen and felt, people I know. But these are also the stories that frustrate me, because no matter the recognition, I CAN'T write them like this.
Thanks to Michael Croley for putting small town Kentucky into words that paint pictures and make me love and hate a place I've never seen.
Thanks to Michael Croley for putting small town Kentucky into words that paint pictures and make me love and hate a place I've never seen.
September 10, 2019
I'm not usually a fan of short story compilations. I hate getting into a story only for it to end quickly and then have to get into a new story. But I'm glad I took a chance on this book. Thirteen short stories about relationships and life in a small town, people who are moving on, people who are coming back. There isn't a weak story in this book.
October 1, 2019
The last two stories, "Washed Away" and "Satellites," were four-star stories. The rest of the collection was forgettable. My ARC didn't explain that they were basically all going to be set in one location (yet without any connections to each other, that I could discern at least) and that wasn't the kind of short story collection I wanted to read just now.
May 21, 2019
Honest. True. Deep. This collection is a beautiful weaving of truths and observations all deeply steeped in its Appalachian setting. I fell in love with each story in turn, and I won't be forgetting this collection anytime soon.
January 22, 2024
I thought the writing was strong, and the perspective (particularly the mixed ethnicity element) was interesting, especially in a town like the one depicted in most of the stories here. I didn't feel blown away by the stories, but I did enjoy them.
September 8, 2019
I’m not a fan of short stories, but these were some of the best I’ve ever read.
March 2, 2020
What a hideously awful way to end a book. Interesting reads throughout, but way too depressing.
March 9, 2020
Michael Croley create characters that live and breathe. This is a marvelous collection!
September 2, 2020
One of the top short story compilations I've read in recent years.
July 13, 2021
for short story class
February 6, 2022
A really great collection of diverse southern stories. Crowley is particularly skilled with creating fully-rounded characters and layered internal and external conflicts.
December 16, 2024
Book of short stories about the modern South with an Asian twist.
August 19, 2022
Ohh, how I loved this book. Bleak, sad, and great.
February 20, 2025
I love southern lit and finding new writers! I adored this book and it is among my top favorite books.
June 8, 2021
A wonderful short story collection where each story is intersected by the characters’ desires to be somewhere else. Most of the stories take place in Kentucky, the author’s birthplace, where he explores what leads people to leave their home and what drives them to want to leave. A high school graduate dreams of going to college and leaving his small town behind; a Korean woman leaves her country and follows her American husband to the farming town he grew up in, only to see it wiped out in a massive storm; a young boy witnesses his free-spirited sister abused by her alcoholic boyfriend; a father and son wrestle with the silence lingering after their wife/mother dies.
Croley pulls the Big Questions into everyday situations and magnifies the tension of ordinary moments, blending the hopelessness and hopefulness of escapism. It’s a beautiful, nostalgic and moving collection from a smart, soulful writer.
Croley pulls the Big Questions into everyday situations and magnifies the tension of ordinary moments, blending the hopelessness and hopefulness of escapism. It’s a beautiful, nostalgic and moving collection from a smart, soulful writer.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews