Death Is Not an Option
Stories
13 September 2011
Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, but excluding the British Commonwealth.
Description
“Ruthlessly frank. . . . Recalls Holden Caulfield by way of John Hughes.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
These stories explode “with piercing insight . . . illuminating the dangerous dance between victims and saviors. [They] deliver us to the edge of grief, that precarious place where the moral compass spins—where codes of love and law and religion fail. Mercy here depends on a tiger’s sublime grace, our capacity to resist deeper harm, and the right of every broken being to remain silent” (Melanie Rae Thon).
Reviews
"Refreshing tales, laced with bitter humor and ’90s pop- culture references." — Elle
"Ferociously intelligent. . . . Rivecca populates her stories with imperfect, acutely drawn characters, which is a rare pleasure, simply because her approximations are so believable." — San Francisco Chronicle
"[Rivecca’s] talent allows her to impressively flex the muscle of fiction, making us keep our attention where it belongs—on these bracing stories promising a fine career." — NPR
"Recalls early Gaitskill in its stark depiction of girls who lost their innocence long before they knew it was theirs to lose." — Vogue
"These sizzling coming-of-age stories are served on a plate of shattered glass, with a side of lacerating humor. Rivecca’s audacious narrators—all ask the question, What am I doing here? The answers in this gutsy, heart- rattling debut collection are deliciously complicated and always unexpected." — Pam Houston, More
"I was astonished and transported by the stories in this collection which are simultaneously hilariously funny and sharply, sometimes painfully, perceptive. I stayed up reading them late into the night because I did not want to put them down and I thought about them for a long time after I finished the last one. I think about them still." — Emily Mitchell, author of The Last Summer of the World
"With exquisite patience and piercing insight, Suzanne Rivecca illuminates the dangerous dance between victims and saviors. Death Is Not an Option delivers us to the edge of grief, that precarious place where the moral compass spins—where codes of love and law and religion fail. Mercy here depends on a tiger's sublime grace, our capacity to resist deeper harm, and the right of every broken being to remain silent." — Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts and First, Body
"The intensity of thought and feeling in Suzanne Rivecca's stories is remarkable.... The stories are brilliant, funny, and scary. This book is a major achievement." — Charles Baxter, author of The Soul Thief and The Feast of Love
"Suzanne Rivecca is a wonderfully lively and fearless new writer. I greatly admired the stories in Death Is Not an Option." — Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and Birds of America
Awards
Shortlisted — Northern California Book Award, 2011
