Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events - by Kevin Moffett (Paperback)

About the Book

A dazzling new story collection from brilliant, young, award-winning writer Moffett, "Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events" illuminates the intimate experiences of characters caught between aspiration and achievement, uncertainty and illumination, inertia and discovery, the past and the future.

Book Synopsis

From the author of Only Son, longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award

A dazzling new story collection from brilliant, young, award-winning writer Kevin Moffett, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events illuminates the intimate experiences of characters caught between aspiration and achievement, uncertainty and illumination, inertia and discovery, the past and the future. Channeling unexpected, eclectic voices in a collection perfectly suited to readers of Daniyal Mueenuddin, Alice Sebold, and Dave Eggers, Moffett delivers a nuanced, powerful, humorous, and moving meditation on the trials of transitions and liminal living in today's modern world. Richard Russo says, "the first thing you notice reading the stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is the author's extraordinary range--of expertise, technique, imagination and wit. There doesn't seem to be much Kevin Moffett can't do."

From the Back Cover

Propelled by a multitude of idiosyncratic voices, the stories in Kevin Moffett's Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events are tragic in their conception and comic in their execution. Moffett casts light on characters in transitional states, stalled and puzzled. In "In the Pines," a Civil War reenactor visits an elderly woman recently relocated to a retirement home. In "Border to Border," an immigrant working at an amusement park faces a disconcerting choice when he loses one of his dental crowns. In "First Marriage," a honeymooning couple is stalled in Arizona by the stink of dead animal in their rental car. Even as they bumble and disappoint their way through these stories, these characters elicit from us a sympathy--even a self-identification--that is something much stronger than pity. The result is an unsettling and unforgettable collection. Written with penetrating insight into our motivations and fears, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is a wise, funny, and haunting book that signals the emergence of a trailblazing talent.

Review Quotes

"The first thing you notice reading the stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is the author's extraordinary range--of expertise, technique, imagination and wit. There doesn't seem to be much Kevin Moffett can't do." - Richard Russo
"Kevin Moffett's stories are stealth heartbreakers, as well as wonders of sly detail and perfect tone. He's writing some of the best short fiction around." - Sam Lipsyte
"Moffett's prize-winning short stories have been extensively and prestigiously published, and it's easy to see why: Moffett's work is melancholy and funny at the same time, with an uncanny knack for giving weighty topics a weightlessness that manages to make them graver rather than lighter. . . . Language soars in unexpected directions. . . . This collection will leave readers grateful to have encountered characters who are as odd as they are, as sad as they may be, and as stupidly hopeful." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Moffett's work is melancholy and funny at the same time. . . . Language soars in unexpected directions. . . . This collection will leave readers grateful to have encountered characters who are as odd as they are, as sad as they may be, and as stupidly hopeful." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The stories in Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events are as enormously funny as they are enormously sad. Kevin Moffett deals in wisdom, humor, and sympathy with extraordinary fluency; his stories conduct feasibility studies on the possibility of things like human connection and love, and the results, while never ambiguous, are always as unsettling as they are reassuring. And this seems to me about as close as you can come to writing the truth about life." - Chris Adrian
"These stories are as enormously funny as they are enormously sad. Moffett deals in wisdom, humor, and sympathy with extraordinary fluency; the results are always as unsettling as they are reassuring. And this seems to me about as close as you can come to writing the truth about life." - Chris Adrian
"Humor is too often heartless, sheer cleverness lacking content. Kevin Moffett is a member of that delightful minority that takes up the ordinary to reveal the extraordinary. These stories are funny, insightful, and reveal, but never strive for, true depth." - Alice Sebold
"Marvelous stories." - Vanity Fair
"There is simply nothing better than the author who can cut straight to the heart of things, yet deliver brutal punches with a sharp, witty mood, makes us sit up straight no matter what our attention span. Kevin Moffett is one of those writers-brisk, funny, whip-smart, and worth forming a habit for. Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events is one of the most delightful collections in recent memory. . . . It's rare to see as bright a star as Moffett on the literary scene. With this lovely collection, he is one to watch." - The Rumpus
"One of the most delightful collections in recent memory. . . . It's rare to see as bright a star as Moffett on the literary scene. With this lovely collection, he is one to watch." - The Rumpus