Save Me, Stranger - by Erika Krouse (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

WINNER of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize * An NPR Best Book of the Year

"Far-ranging and visionary collection...A dozen little masterpieces of heart and longing and surprise." --ADAM JOHNSON

"Save Me, Stranger is a book of parables--supernal and sinister. Disturbing but comforting. Read these stories with a buddy, because someone will have to scrape you off the floor." --LOUISE ERDRICH

Erika Krouse's debut memoir, Tell Me Everything, was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "lyrical, jarring, propulsive," and the Washington Post as "mesmerizing on every page." Now, with an electrifying new collection of stories, Save Me, Stranger, she further cements her reputation as an essential voice.

From the coldest town on earth to a sex shop in Bangkok to a haunted bed-and-breakfast in the Rockies, we meet characters at hinge moments. A runaway fights for her future while driving an ice-cream truck in gang territory; a cleaning woman investigates the teenager who died in her stead; a terminal patient in Alaska discovers new life in helping others die. This collection explores the borderlands between humor and hurt, community and self, and hope and despair, redefining what it means to survive.

Scalpel-sharp, unsparingly funny, and achingly wise, Krouse's expansive stories build to unforgettable emotional catharses, as these men and women must decide how far they are willing to go to save one another--and themselves.

Review Quotes

Winner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A Most Anticipated Book (Vulture, Literary Hub, Chicago Review of Books, SheKnows)

"Surprising...Powerful...Krouse's narrators are far from perfect; they're messy, problematic and human, and all the more interesting for their contradictions. Save Me, Stranger is the kind of collection whose stories stick around even after they're done, inviting you to sit with the questions they raise, the discomfort they provoke and the beauty on which they shine a light."
--Los Angeles Times

"It's likely that we've all, at one time or another, wanted to save someone or be saved - sometimes both--and in these stories Erika Krouse explores how complicated, and maybe even impossible, those desires are to fulfill...My favorite kind of short story doesn't resolve neatly, but rather leaves me with a lingering image, idea or possibility, and Krouse's Save Me, Stranger absolutely fits the bill."
--NPR

"After her brilliant memoir, Tell Me Everything, Krouse shows she can write, well, anything!...If stories were liquor, these would be 150 proof."
--People

"An electric writing talent. Save Me, Stranger explores characters who are at hinge moments in their lives; teetering on the edge of possibility and consequence. From the coldest town on Earth, to a sex shop in Bangkok, and an ice-cream truck in gang territory, Krouse takes her readers on a globetrotting journey of survival and rapidly fading hope."
--Chicago Review of Books

"Fans of Lorrie Moore and Jo Ann Beard, readers who dig funny, fierce female narrators, will relish the quirky, honest people who turn up in this short story collection. There is nothing neat or tidy about the revelations in Save Me, Stranger. Krouse's knock-out prose and unforgettable characters will stay with them long after they close this candle of a book, which emits warmth and light."
--Rocky Mountain Reader

"Fierce and unforgettable...These no-holds-barred stories often feature young women in trouble, sometimes of their own making but more frequently not...While danger lurks around the corner for all of Krouse's characters, sometimes compassion saves the day."
--Booklist (starred review)

"Krouse is gifted at capturing her characters' dueling frustrations, needs, and fears. A smart set of globetrotting, emotionally gripping stories."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"Sparkling...Krouse exhibits tremendous range, imagining herself into a myriad places, minds, and situations. She often eschews tidy endings, leaving characters on the brink and allowing readers to draw inferences about what they will decide. Fans of Danielle Evans and Lauren Groff have a treat in store."
--Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Thought-provoking....[Krouse's] fiction is as gripping as any unsolved mystery. She writes with bold, confident, literary strokes that shift between fast-paced plot points and quieter, often unsettling psychological moments, which all move toward a vision of something vital, transient, and worth chasing after...Each of the 12 stories has a wholeness and precision that showcase Krouse's wonderful grasp of craftsmanship."
--Library Journal

"Affecting...Poignant...[Krouse] makes the thrill of new beginnings palpable."
--Publishers Weekly

"Save Me, Stranger is a book of parables--supernal and sinister. Disturbing but comforting. Read these stories with a buddy, because someone will have to scrape you off the floor."
--Louise Erdrich, author of The Sentence and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award

"In this far-ranging and visionary collection, Krouse extends the reach of what stories can do, delivering a dozen little masterpieces of heart and longing and surprise. Save Me, Stranger is at once a treatise on tender moments and a symphony of storytelling."
--Adam Johnson, author of Fortune Smiles and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Story Prize

"I really enjoyed this book. Some of its remarkable power is that the stories alternate between embodying epiphanies and valedictions--sometimes a quick goodbye, but always with an authenticity that convinces the longer it lingers. They'll stay in your mind."
--Ann Beattie, author of Onlookers and winner of the PEN/Malamud Award

"It is always a thrill to encounter a new and wildly capable imagination. Each story here is fully-realized and also a portal into a new landscape, and I read with appetite, marveling at Krouse's range and storytelling chops."
--Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade and winner of the Alex Award

"The protagonists at the heart of this collection seem to hang, fingers clinging, on a high precipice, while the reader stands above in judgment and care, both at once. In our lonesome, suspicious times, Save Me, Stranger made me feel that there's hope yet for our wretched souls. I'll be thinking about these stories for a long time."
--Vauhini Vara, author of This is Salvaged and a Pulitzer Prize finalist

About the Author

Erika Krouse is the author of the memoir Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation, winner of the Edgar Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the Housatonic Book Award; the story collections Save Me, Stranger and Come Up and See Me Sometime, a New York Times Notable Book and winner of the Paterson Fiction Prize; and the novel Contenders, a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Krouse's fiction has been published in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, One Story, and more. She teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and lives in Colorado.