Author Description

People trying to fit in, to belong, to find a place to call home. It's an idea as simple to understand as it is difficult to get. And in Michael Leone's carefully observed new collection, it arrives with insight, sensitivity, and a sly humor that snaps your head back mid-laugh and reveals the truth of things before you ever see it coming. In story after story, Leone guides us into the lives of people on the ropes and asks, What is home, really? How deep does it go? And how long will it last against the assaults of modern life? There's the low-level bureaucrat living in his office and hiding it from his co-workers; there's the young man navigating a graduation with a girlfriend, in-laws, a mother just released from a psychiatric institute, her divorced husband, and his new lover; there's the displaced professional, writing a cover letter torqued tight with contradictory emotions; there's the resentful adjunct at an academic departmental meeting who fills the minutes with personal grudges and a surprise admission: there's the aspiring writer whose chance meeting with an established author changes his life. Surly or sad, broken or brash, Leone's characters hold your interest and demand your sympathy. The Real Natasha and Other Stories welcomes a compelling new voice to the literary scene.