The Wild Grass and Other Stories

Davin Malasarn's short stories and flash fiction have earned multiple awards, including two Pushcart Prize nominations and the PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship. The pieces collected here represent Malasarn's most emotional and personal work over the last ten years. Readers will be transported around the world and into the depths of the human heart. In the opening story,The Burning Girl, a young boy, Ben, is forced to participate in a Buddhist ritual while his mother is away. Ben doesn't understand what's going on, but he trusts his father and aunt to take care of him. As the evening progresses, Ben realizes that he has done something wrong. His family wants to change him, and he sees no alternative but to comply. The title story, The Wild Grass, describes an old woman's investigation into the afterlife following her husband's death. She wonders if a python that visits the house is an angel, and she wonders when her own turn to die will come. The 17 stories in this collection will take readers to exotic settings around the world while showcasing how universal the human response truly is.