Out There

Kate Folk

From Shelf: 5 star reads in 2022

Kate Folk's debut short story collection Out There is a genre-bending look at the human response to the voids in life; internal and external, literal and metaphorical.

PRAISE FOR KATE FOLK:'The literary love child of Kafka and Camus and Bradbury penning episodes of Black Mirror' Chang-Rae Lee'Disturbing, alluring, dazzling and creepy, Out There is a riveting collection that keeps you enthralled with every page' Claire North------------------------------------------------------------------------A fleet of fake men called 'blots' is unleashed onto the dating apps of San Francisco, intent upon conning vulnerable women out of their data, in the exquisite title story Out There. Companion story Big Sur focuses on the reality of the blots' personal experiences.A sculptor, trapped in a skyscraper restaurant when a violent coup erupts below, creates a perfect model of the town as it is destroyed, in A Scale Model of Gull PointA ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the scene of a perilous love triangle, in The Bone WardA house possesses gigantic human organs that consume the overworked graduate students renting its rooms, in The House's Beating HeartA curtain of void obliterates the world at a steady pace, leaving one woman to decide whom she wants to spend eternity with, in The Void WifeAnd many more that form Kate Folk's debut collection Out There deftly combines elements of science fiction, horror, and psychological realism to create implicitly political and feminist stories. A darkly comic exploration of our lives in the digital age, the collection depicts a landscape that is eminently of-the-moment, and Folk magnifies the ephemera of living with a healthy slice of absurdity.The thematic pair - Out There and Big Sur - that bookend the collection have since been optioned as a TV series by Hulu, with Kate serving as executive producer and co-writer with Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe).------------------------------------------------------------------------'Kate Folk's stories inhabit otherworldly realms where exquisite language and beguiling characters excavate the very nature of love and existence' Adam Johnson'A literary swordsmith of feline dexterity, very dark and very funny' Lisa Locascio'The stories in this stunning debut are funny, fearless, and moving... Folk's imagination is uncanny and arresting' Alex McElroy

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