I Am the Ghost Here - by Kim Samek (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"The debut by Pushcart-winning short story writer Kim Samek blends subversive humor with the absurd in a memorable collection of stories. . . . Recommended for fans of Ben Loory and Aimee Bender."--Los Angeles Times (20 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2026)

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Alta, The Millions, Debutiful, Lit Hub, The Seattle Times

A woman's limbs disappear into "the cloud" during wildfire-induced power outages. A lonely DoorDasher accidentally becomes the star of someone else's reality show, forced to resolve her fraught relationship with her immigrant mother for the narrative. Succumbing to a widely denied pandemic, a gymnastics coach must carry her heart around in a Mason jar, using her disability to become an influencer. Two chronically single, chronically ill people become soulmates, only to discover their meeting was algorithmically orchestrated by ad tech. Other dramas unfold as icebergs melt and island-sized trash heaps burn.

Threaded with sharp social commentary, these stories question the engineering of human connection through technology, social media, and reality television. Warm, endlessly strange, and filled with dark yet hopeful humor, I Am the Ghost Here casts familiar crises of contemporary life in a wholly unique light, offering a pathway towards our shared humanity even as reality comes crumbling down.

Review Quotes

"The pages of I Am the Ghost Here are as electric as a live wire: dangerous in the most thrilling possible way. The world of these stories isn't quite like ours--but is it any more absurd than the one we're in, honestly?"--Vauhini Vara, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of This Is Salvaged

"The debut by Pushcart-winning short story writer Kim Samek blends subversive humor with the absurd in a memorable collection of stories written during the pandemic. . . . Recommended for fans of Ben Loory and Aimee Bender."--Los Angeles Times

"I don't think any short story collection provided banger after banger like Samek's debut collection does. Reading her work is such a thrilling delight. Dive into her Pushcart-winning story 'Easement' to tie you over until this book is released. A contender for the Best Short Story Collection of the Decade."--Debutiful

"Dreamlike."--The Seattle Times

"Samek debuts with a striking collection of fantastical and speculative stories about conformity, technology, and the limits of bodily autonomy."--The Millions

"Like a season of Black Mirror but less bleak and more melancholy, each story in this collection offers a door into an inventive new world, strange and familiar at the same time. Every page, every line offers possibility, surprise, humor, or heartbreak. . . . An exciting new voice."--Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown

"Beguiling and funny and desperately, delicately human . . . I found these stories as irresistible as a pack of time-traveling mints."--Ed Park, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Same Bed, Different Dreams

"I Am the Ghost Here blends absurd humor and speculative storylines to offer commentary on social media, tech, conformity, and more."--Alta

"I adored this collection of surreal stories, which feel both of-the-moment and timeless. Bizarre, very funny, and emotionally authentic, these stories pulse with pathos and surprising insights into what it feels like to be human . . . A vital addition to the canon of weird fiction."--Kate Folk, author of Sky Daddy

"Samek debuts with a striking collection of fantastical and speculative stories about conformity, technology, and the limits of bodily autonomy. . . . This dazzles."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Smart, dryly witty stories as absurd as they are devastating about life in the 21st century."--Kirkus Reviews

"I love reading about the horrors. Big fantastical ones, but also ones that feel so normalized and mundane and get extrapolated to their most dystopian and absurd."--Literary Hub

"With sharp prose, dark yet hopeful humor, and imaginative daring, Samek takes a unique look at existential crises, poignantly capturing the dissonance between who we believe or want ourselves to be and the realities that erode those beliefs."--Booklist, starred review

"Within the brevity of her stories, Samek creates fabulously multilayered worlds featuring automatic vacuums equipped with hidden cameras, puppeteers for hire who transform people into better versions of themselves, a rampant disease that causes victims to excise major organs then carry their body parts in mason jars, and strangers who become lovers over a plastic-eating obsession."--Shelf Awareness, starred review

"A collection for anyone willing to enter a weird, hilarious, and often devastating world and arrive somewhere new, somewhere perhaps meaningful . . . Enjoy Samek's sharp writing and allow yourself to be surprised and delighted by the many exact, perfect details."--Story magazine

"This debut collection is 12 fantastical stories about 12 different women. Each is dealing with the modern horrors of social media, bodily autonomy, and technology, like a DoorDasher who becomes the star of someone else's reality show, a gymnastics coach whose heart is in a jar, and soulmates who learn they weren't so much fated to meet as set up by advertisers."--Book Riot

About the Author

Kim Samek is the O. Henry Prize-winning author of the debut story collection I Am The Ghost Here (The Dial Press, 2026). Her fiction has also won the Pushcart Prize and has been cited as a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories. Her stories appear in Zyzzyva, The Threepenny Review, Story, Guernica, and elsewhere. She works as a TV writer and producer, with credits including WordGirl and Catfish, and her writing has been nominated for an Emmy Award. A native of Seattle, she studied Creative Writing and German Literature at Stanford University. She lives in Los Angeles.