Alternative Facts - by Emily Greenberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In this absurd and wildly inventive debut collection, Emily Greenberg imagines the inner lives of the politicians, celebrities, artists, and entertainers who have ushered in our post-truth era.

With equal parts compassion and incisiveness, Greenberg vividly renders the porous boundaries between fact and fiction, public and private, reality and simulation. George W. Bush almost tells Jay Leno the truth about his paintings. Kellyanne Conway lands a punch. Hawaii's governor enjoys a transcendent experience with a sentient Twitter bird amid a disastrous false missile alert. And in the final story, Paris Hilton falls from a helicopter onto Thomas Pynchon's fire escape, leading to a surreal adventure full of magical dentists, talking dogs, and unexpected friendships.

Satirical and deadly serious, clever and tender, Alternative Facts forges new spaces for meaning and connection across our fractured realities.

Review Quotes

"These fictionalizations investigate their real-world counterparts with a surprising amount of humanity and complexity, and the prose reveals the author's attention to craft . . . A bold and often eerie set of tales that skillfully explore life's what-if complexities."

-Kirkus Reviews

"These are stories that will stay with you. Maybe because of how absurd, yet somehow believable they are. Maybe because of their unconventional formats, or because of the intensity of diving so deeply and so compassionately into the intimate and personal inner worlds of these flawed and complex characters."

-Independent Book Review

"Equal parts brilliant and bonkers. . .Emily Greenberg's prose is electric, and everything around it seems to spark as a result."-The Commercial Appeal

"Thoughtful and compelling."-Electric Literature

"A fresh perspective on the dizzying relationship between the truth and what distorts it . . . As conversations about the purpose of art grow louder, [Greenberg] shows that art can address the elephant in the room." -Washington Independent Review of Books

"Strange and wonderful writing... Each of these stories is unique, with distinct staying power, and together they speak to the times we're living in while hinting at how we may be able to overcome them."-Necessary Fiction

"Through a vertiginous lens of fact and fiction, Greenberg seems to move beyond notions of truth and history, landing in a place where everything is a fact, in the same way everything is a fiction." -Full Stop

"Excels in tale with a twist. . . [Readers] seeking a collection of short stories charged by literary might, political insight, cultural revelation, and quirky, wry humor will find Alternative Facts just the ticket."-Midwest Book Review