The Submerged
Stories
Will be published approx. on 1. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-0-8203-7786-5 (ISBN)
Description
In ten surprising, emotionally devastating stories, Will Boast explores the complex ways in which we long for a home, for connection and purpose. A Sicilian barber takes on a refugee as an apprentice and upends his own quiet village life. A lonely New York architect starts an ill-advised relationship with an aspiring congressman. The comic mayhem of teenage locals in a tourist town suddenly turns deadly serious. A shooting in northern Wisconsin involving a migrant sets a community against itself. The Submerged draws unforgettable portraits of those forced into exile and those who choose it themselves. Boast asks just what we'll do when the time comes to leave everything behind.
Reviews / Votes
A breathtakingly honest look at the silent compromises we make to remain in the places we love. Lyrical and profound, this is short fiction at its most potent. -- Andrew Porter * author of The Imagined Life * The persistence of human contradiction, rather than setting, mood, or perspective, unifies the stories in this remarkable collection. Will Boast is an equally merciless and merciful chronicler of the contemporary moment. -- Anthony Marra * award-winning author of New York Times bestseller A Constellation of Vital Phenomena * From the very first story, I understood that these were stories that would challenge and delight me. Boast's characters are not always immediately likeable, but he is a master at complicating the narrative in ways that are unexpected and that challenge the reader's assumptions. This, I believe, is the job of literature, maybe especially now: to make us question what we believe about the world and others and even ourselves. These stories offer both humor and pathos, but they are never glib or preachy or sentimental. Rather, the ten stories in The Submerged leave you feeling as the title suggests: claustrophobic at times, floating just beneath the surface of something powerful, and always fully immersed in the lives of these characters and in Boast's worlds and words. -- Lori Ostlund * award-winning author of The Bigness of the World and Are You Happy? * Bursting with compassion and wit and intelligence, The Submerged is a stunning collection that explores what it means to find home-and to lose it. An astonishing new book by one of our most exciting writers. -- Molly Antopol * award-winning author of The UnAmericans * These profound, revealing stories glow with tenderness and deepfelt compassion. They linger with you long after reading. -- Ling Ma * award-winning author of Severance and Bliss Montage *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Georgia
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8203-7786-5 (9780820377865)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
WILL BOAST is the author of a previous story collection, Power Ballads; a memoir, Epilogue; and a novel, Daphne. His short fiction, reporting, and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Guardian, The American Scholar, Granta, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications. He's held fellowships from Stanford University, the American Academy in Rome, the University of East Anglia, Yaddo, and MacDowell, and he's taught at Stanford, the University of Chicago, Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center in Rome. He resides in Chicago, Illinois.