Book summary

Ten short stories that portray the unpredictability and violence in everyday life.

Media reviews

"In 'A Stranger in This World', Kevin Canty's superb debut collection of stories...[he] captures and illuminates the contradictions that fuel so much human behavior, giving such turbulence extraordinary momentum and clarity. His tautly structured stories breathe with sharp, distilled intelligence, mingling recognition with surprise. In them, we glimpse the fun-house disjunction between actions that from the outside simply look dismaying and the fierce interior life they hide. Nor can Mr. Canty's characters' own powers of perception save them from crossing the line from safety into danger...While the subject matter of Mr. Canty's stories is often dark, the collection is not ultimately bleak in tone. Instead, 'A Stranger in This World' offers a sense of continual illumination, revealing the terrible and wonderful possibilities encapsulated in every moment."