Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks: Stories

by Pablo Piñero Stillmann

Desperate to find a cure for his depression, a young man forges an odd relationship with a disgraced scientist. The descendant of a refugee tells her family story using symbols instead of names. A lonely boy from a broken family finds solace in a television show hosted by a mysterious man. In these stories, equal parts sad and funny, Pablo Piñero Stillmann’s characters lose themselves as they search for meaningful human connection. These are stories of chaos—internal and external—of chasing and escaping, of intense longing, but most of all, the nine stories in this book are portraits of people wrestling with their deepest flaws.
 

162 pages, Paperback

Published May 15, 2020

Reviews

[Joseph Scapellato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pablo Piñero Stillman’s astonishing stories stun with their punchy sharpness and style, with their deeply layered humor and humanity. Whether they follow a man’s recollection of a sock-puppet soap opera, or the family lore surrounding an eccentric cartographer grandfather, or the founding of a town in which depression is revered, each story is disarmingly matter-of-fact in its patient excavation of emotional density: mental anguish, generational grief, existential resignation. I burned through Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks in a day, and you will, too: a genuinely immersive debut from a dazzling writer.