David Means

At the bitter end of the 1960s, after surviving multiple assassination attempts, President John F. Kennedy is entering his third term in office. The Vietnam War rages on, and the president has created a vast federal agency, the Psych Corps, dedicated to maintaining the nation’s mental hygiene by any means necessary. Soldiers returning from the war have their battlefield traumas “enfolded”―wiped fr...

The paperback of the critically acclaimed story collection from David Means. ‘One of the best American collections of the last ten years…This is food for the hungry.’ Jonathan Franzen ‘His writing blazes with originality and self-assuredness…A striking new voice in American fiction.’ Dominic Bradbury, The Times ‘Worlds collide and spring apart…this sort of thing happe...

An extraordinary collection of short stories from an author who is set to become one of America’s leading literary voices.In the tradition of Raymond Carver or Tobias Wolff, these are all-encompassing stories of the American psyche, of love and loss and of the landscape and its people.A goldfish circles in its bowl, refusing to die, becoming the silent focus of a difficult family life; a pianist l...

In his award-winning second collection, David Means explores the fragility of those things that we cherish most. His incomparable, distinct voice--often wildly humorous, always engaging--has led the New York Times to call Means "one of our most talented younger writers."