2023 PEN/Faulkner Award (nominee)
One of Vulture's Best Books of the Year
This genre-bending debut collection of stories constructs eight eerie worlds full of desire, wisdom, and magic blooming amidst decay.
In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis.
In “The Changeling,” two young cousins wait in dread for a new family member to arrive, convinced that he may be a dangerous supernatural creature. In “Endangered Animals,” Jane prepares to say goodbye to her almost-love while they road-trip across a country irrevocably altered by climate change. In “Take Only What Belongs to You,” a queer woman struggles with the personal history of an author she idolized, while in “Fiddler, Fool, Pair,” an anthropologist is drawn into a magical—and dangerous—gamble. In the title story, partners Agnes and Geb feast peacefully on the mushrooms that sprout from Agnes’s body—until an unwanted male guest disturbs their cloistered home.
Audacious, striking, and wholly original, Fruiting Bodies offers stories about knowledge in a world on the verge of collapse, knowledge that alternately empowers or devastates. Pulling beautifully, brazenly, from a variety of literary traditions, Kathryn Harlan firmly establishes herself as a thrilling new voice in fiction.
Genre: Literary Fiction
This genre-bending debut collection of stories constructs eight eerie worlds full of desire, wisdom, and magic blooming amidst decay.
In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change. Echoes of timeless myth and folklore reverberate through urgent narratives of discovery, appetite, and coming-of-age in a time of crisis.
In “The Changeling,” two young cousins wait in dread for a new family member to arrive, convinced that he may be a dangerous supernatural creature. In “Endangered Animals,” Jane prepares to say goodbye to her almost-love while they road-trip across a country irrevocably altered by climate change. In “Take Only What Belongs to You,” a queer woman struggles with the personal history of an author she idolized, while in “Fiddler, Fool, Pair,” an anthropologist is drawn into a magical—and dangerous—gamble. In the title story, partners Agnes and Geb feast peacefully on the mushrooms that sprout from Agnes’s body—until an unwanted male guest disturbs their cloistered home.
Audacious, striking, and wholly original, Fruiting Bodies offers stories about knowledge in a world on the verge of collapse, knowledge that alternately empowers or devastates. Pulling beautifully, brazenly, from a variety of literary traditions, Kathryn Harlan firmly establishes herself as a thrilling new voice in fiction.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A debut of astonishing range and beauty, nimble and magical and profound. In stunning prose, Kathryn Harlan's wildly imaginative and daring stories reveal the anguish of growing up in a dying world. Her characters' quest for knowledge-about themselves, their families, their bodies, and their yearnings-will thrill and haunt you." - Jessamine Chan
"Fruiting Bodies is abundant with dark and tender wonders. In the spirit of Shirley Jackson, Kathryn Harlan coaxes their characters' secret feelings into the open, where they bloom into compelling dramas. A book as loving as it is eerie, full of queer love and queer longing, I so enjoyed my stay in the deep woods of Harlan's imagination." - C J Hauser
"Allow me to tell the unvarnished truth: Fruiting Bodies is going to knock your socks off. Put on your socks right now and get prepared. Kathryn Harlan's writing is just what you're looking for, but something you've never seen before." - Judith Claire Mitchell
"This is an extraordinary, gorgeous, wildly imaginative collection of stories. I know I will be returning to them again and again." - Bich Minh Nguyen
"These excellent stories are insightful, transporting, and gloriously uncanny. In story after story, Fruiting Bodies uncovers knowledge that is tantalizing and terrible." - Kirstin Valdez Quade
"Oh my gosh Kathryn Harlan's stories are so good-they're feral and formal and funny and exactly what you want when you turn to a person you love and say 'tell me a story.'" - Amber Sparks
"Fruiting Bodies is abundant with dark and tender wonders. In the spirit of Shirley Jackson, Kathryn Harlan coaxes their characters' secret feelings into the open, where they bloom into compelling dramas. A book as loving as it is eerie, full of queer love and queer longing, I so enjoyed my stay in the deep woods of Harlan's imagination." - C J Hauser
"Allow me to tell the unvarnished truth: Fruiting Bodies is going to knock your socks off. Put on your socks right now and get prepared. Kathryn Harlan's writing is just what you're looking for, but something you've never seen before." - Judith Claire Mitchell
"This is an extraordinary, gorgeous, wildly imaginative collection of stories. I know I will be returning to them again and again." - Bich Minh Nguyen
"These excellent stories are insightful, transporting, and gloriously uncanny. In story after story, Fruiting Bodies uncovers knowledge that is tantalizing and terrible." - Kirstin Valdez Quade
"Oh my gosh Kathryn Harlan's stories are so good-they're feral and formal and funny and exactly what you want when you turn to a person you love and say 'tell me a story.'" - Amber Sparks
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