Drastic - by Maud Casey (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

Meet the college graduate working in a whole body-donation clinic; a young woman obsessed with Benedictine monks; a middle-aged woman who becomes a stand-in talk-show guest; unlikely friends who meet in a domestic violence shelter; a young girl and the father who stole her away to escape his wife's mental illness; a graduate student from a suburban family who believes her physical connection to the world is deteriorating. Maud Casey -- author of The Shape of Things to Come, a New York Times Notable Book -- explores how we survive modern crises of loss and love through the lives of emotional and geographic nomads. Each flirts with madness and self-destruction while reaching toward life. These simple gestures of optimism and vitality, gorgeously rendered, make drastic an unforgettable collection.

Review Quotes

"Edgy, thought-provoking, charged with raw emotion, Drastic is an impressive collection from a rich and wonderfully unpredictable talent." - John Searles, author of Boy Still Missing
"Writing with power, beauty, and a searing vision, Maud Casey creates stories that change the world before our eyes." - Erin McGraw, author of Lies of the Saints
"Maud Casey snakes beneath our consciousness, one deft sentence at a time. Drastic is a wholehearted work of art." - Nicholas Weinstock, author of As Long As She Needs Me
"A primer on the genealogy of loneliness. . . . well-written . . . novelistic, its theme of loss made palpable and powerful . . . such riches." - New York Times Book Review
"A complex, mature, and compelling novel." - Chicago Tribune
"Tak[ing] a dazzling narrative dare." - New York Times Book Review on Notable Book of the Year THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
"Refreshingly unaffected. . . . There's a deliberate tenderness in Casey's handling of her characters." - Washington Post Book World
"Well-written . . . novelistic, its theme of loss made palpable and powerful . . . such riches." - New York Times Book Review
"Stories . . . that absolutely soar with illuminating little details that crack everything open and reach for hope." - Hartford Courant
"The characters in Casey's stories find their solace ... in the moments love cracks the rock face of the ordinary." - Ann Darby, The Orphan Game
"Striking . . . a gem." - Elle
"Casey tells these stories with a compassionate voice that would give anyone of these people a reason to live." - Mary Kay Zuravleff, The Frequency of Souls
"Skillful, moving . . . A winning combination of emotional resonance, subtle humor and wisdom." - Publishers Weekly
"Sad and funny, Casey's warm-hearted, fine stories reach like a pair of outstretched arms for comfort and truth." - Lily Tuck, author of Limbo, and Other Places I Have Lived: Stories
"[Drastic] is a treasure trove of jewels to live for--stories beautiful, multi-faceted, and fierce with light." - Stuart Dybek, author of The Coast of Chicago
"The characters in Drastic struggle to understand their lives...in prose that is quiet and illuminating." - Jason Brown, author of Driving the Heart: And Other Stories