The Picador Book Room

This post is part of a week-long mini-series celebrating National Short Story Month. Today, we’re talking about Chris Adrian’s A Better Angel.

Angels, devils, the permeable barrier between life and death, the perception of the afterlife as last-hope (and sometimes lost-hope) – this collection of stories is staged upon a plane of imagination that is uniquely accessible to Adrian, a pediatric oncologist pursuing a master’s degree at Harvard Divinity.  To me, the stories show how we are both darker and more redeemable that we may know.

In our Chris Adrian archives: watch him reading one-star Goodreads reviews of his works earlier this month here.

Last night at the Happy Ending Music and Reading Series at Joe’s Pub, Picador author Chris Adrian read eight one-star Goodreads reviews of his work as part of the series’ obligatory risk/dare. Unfortunately, I only captured numbers four through eight in this video. (The cackling you hear is a certain Picador publicity assistant.)