* Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist
* 2022 Stella Prize, Longlist
"A Best Book of the Year" —The Guardian
"A Most Anticipated book of 2022" —Entertainment Weekly
With an unforgettable voice and exuberant wit, She Is Haunted is a masterful debut exploring issues of identity, connection, and loss, told with remarkable grace and assurance by Chinese/American/Australian author, Paige Clark.
In stories charged by the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, grief, exes, and the profundities of friendship, She Is Haunted features injured ballerinas, cloned dogs, and competitive call centers in settings as far ranging as future and present Australia, New York City’s Chinatown, and suburban California. A mother cuts her daughter’s hair because her own hair begins falling out; a woman attempts to physically transform into her dead husband so that she does not have to grieve; a woman undergoes brain surgery in order to live more comfortably in extreme temperatures.
Braiding the real and the surreal, both playfully witty and deeply insightful, these stories show us characters striving to make sense of the grand themes of family, love, death, and our changing world. She Is Haunted flags Paige Clark as a wondrous and wise new literary talent.
Genre: Literary Fiction
* 2022 Stella Prize, Longlist
"A Best Book of the Year" —The Guardian
"A Most Anticipated book of 2022" —Entertainment Weekly
With an unforgettable voice and exuberant wit, She Is Haunted is a masterful debut exploring issues of identity, connection, and loss, told with remarkable grace and assurance by Chinese/American/Australian author, Paige Clark.
In stories charged by the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, grief, exes, and the profundities of friendship, She Is Haunted features injured ballerinas, cloned dogs, and competitive call centers in settings as far ranging as future and present Australia, New York City’s Chinatown, and suburban California. A mother cuts her daughter’s hair because her own hair begins falling out; a woman attempts to physically transform into her dead husband so that she does not have to grieve; a woman undergoes brain surgery in order to live more comfortably in extreme temperatures.
Braiding the real and the surreal, both playfully witty and deeply insightful, these stories show us characters striving to make sense of the grand themes of family, love, death, and our changing world. She Is Haunted flags Paige Clark as a wondrous and wise new literary talent.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Paige Clark's stories in She is Haunted illuminate all of the corners of the heart -- she examines her characters' journeys through grief, envy, connection, and love, across nations, identity and trauma. Her work has the deep honesty and precision of writers like Amy Hempel, Yoko Ogawa, and Alice Munro. A stunning collection." - Karen E Bender
"What an exuberant and tender collection! Paige Clark concocts stories erupting with lively language, deft wordplay, and great depth of feeling. Laugh, cry, and wince knowingly along with the many Elizabeths of the book as they broach the mysteries of intimacy and loss. I am haunted by them, in the best possible way." - YZ Chin
"Crisply contemporary yet timeless, She Is Haunted grapples with every aspect of our current moment, from global warming and the science-fictional alteration of our bodies; to their duplication by cloning, to avoid unbearable grief; to reproductive freedom, and the complexities of chosen motherhood; to the trans-global experience, and the formation of intentional communities, and identities. Quick-witted, astute, and deeply felt, Paige Clark's precise and confident prose delivers us to the center of our most painfully fleeting yet necessary moments in life, surprising us with mercy and humanity." - Sarah Gerard
"Paige Clark is a wonderfully sly, fierce and fearless writer and She is Haunted is full of the best kinds of surprises. I couldn't stop turning the pages." - Margot Livesey
"The real meets the ethereal here and becomes something all its own. Clark is the best new writer in Australia and this book is like nothing else." - Robert Lukins
"The stories in She Is Haunted grapple with a mix of timeless human problems and uniquely contemporary dilemmas: grief, illness, identity, and heartbreak, but also who gets custody of the dog after a break-up, bureaucratic responses to deeply personal relationship issues, and the politics of food. Paige Clark writes with wit, warmth and nuance, using precise, playful language, giving us a collection of (sometimes embarrassingly) relatable characters, sneaky insights and surprising bursts of joy." - Emily Maguire
"What a beautifully wrought collection this is. Paige Clark has a singular voice, witty and graceful, and her explorations of grief, loss, and identity are deeply moving. I will remember these strange, funny, melancholy stories for a long time." - Alix Ohlin
"She is Haunted is a beautiful, brutal, and unsettling debut. Clark confronts agency, identity and longing with masterful precision and true originality -- each story has its own skewed logic and wonderfully odd atmosphere. I can't stop thinking about this stylish, deeply strange collection." - Kimberly King Parsons
"She Is Haunted kept me looking forward to a new story each day, with anticipation for something that would absolutely surprise me, make me think all the next day about how we operate as humans, as creatures, as lovers. Never predictable, riveting and trembling with the unexpected, this book is a remarkable debut, and Paige Clark a writer to celebrate." - Susan Straight
"A wondrous spirit animates She Is Haunted. In sentences of bracing snap and clarity, Clark's stories delight and amuse, even as they expose tender truths and secrets. An astonishing debut." - Wells Tower
"What an exuberant and tender collection! Paige Clark concocts stories erupting with lively language, deft wordplay, and great depth of feeling. Laugh, cry, and wince knowingly along with the many Elizabeths of the book as they broach the mysteries of intimacy and loss. I am haunted by them, in the best possible way." - YZ Chin
"Crisply contemporary yet timeless, She Is Haunted grapples with every aspect of our current moment, from global warming and the science-fictional alteration of our bodies; to their duplication by cloning, to avoid unbearable grief; to reproductive freedom, and the complexities of chosen motherhood; to the trans-global experience, and the formation of intentional communities, and identities. Quick-witted, astute, and deeply felt, Paige Clark's precise and confident prose delivers us to the center of our most painfully fleeting yet necessary moments in life, surprising us with mercy and humanity." - Sarah Gerard
"Paige Clark is a wonderfully sly, fierce and fearless writer and She is Haunted is full of the best kinds of surprises. I couldn't stop turning the pages." - Margot Livesey
"The real meets the ethereal here and becomes something all its own. Clark is the best new writer in Australia and this book is like nothing else." - Robert Lukins
"The stories in She Is Haunted grapple with a mix of timeless human problems and uniquely contemporary dilemmas: grief, illness, identity, and heartbreak, but also who gets custody of the dog after a break-up, bureaucratic responses to deeply personal relationship issues, and the politics of food. Paige Clark writes with wit, warmth and nuance, using precise, playful language, giving us a collection of (sometimes embarrassingly) relatable characters, sneaky insights and surprising bursts of joy." - Emily Maguire
"What a beautifully wrought collection this is. Paige Clark has a singular voice, witty and graceful, and her explorations of grief, loss, and identity are deeply moving. I will remember these strange, funny, melancholy stories for a long time." - Alix Ohlin
"She is Haunted is a beautiful, brutal, and unsettling debut. Clark confronts agency, identity and longing with masterful precision and true originality -- each story has its own skewed logic and wonderfully odd atmosphere. I can't stop thinking about this stylish, deeply strange collection." - Kimberly King Parsons
"She Is Haunted kept me looking forward to a new story each day, with anticipation for something that would absolutely surprise me, make me think all the next day about how we operate as humans, as creatures, as lovers. Never predictable, riveting and trembling with the unexpected, this book is a remarkable debut, and Paige Clark a writer to celebrate." - Susan Straight
"A wondrous spirit animates She Is Haunted. In sentences of bracing snap and clarity, Clark's stories delight and amuse, even as they expose tender truths and secrets. An astonishing debut." - Wells Tower
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