UI Press | Tod Goldberg

Simplify

Winner of the Other Voices Short Fiction Collection Award

From the author of the acclaimed novel Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, come twelve haunting stories about people caught somewhere between love and madness. Simplify mines the often surreal terrain of people on the margins of life: from the man with a photo of Elvis bleeding on his wall in "Comeback Special," to the profoundly troubled boy genius of the title story "Simplify," to the family that must traverse "The Distance Between Us" to finally get to the truth about their son the murderer, each story hums with sharp drama, mystery, wonder, and startling humor. Simplify, the first collection of short fiction by Tod Goldberg, portrays a world where redemption, hope, and violence are never too far apart. It is the inaugural volume from the Other Voices new imprint, OV Books.

"Lovely and odd."--Elizabeth Crane, author of All This Heavenly Glory

"Tod Goldberg is an amazing true original who plunges deep into the scary heart of our American life. Hilarious and unnerving, charming and creepy, dusted with a strange, ineffable melancholy, these stories made the hair on my head stand up and my eyes fall out. I recommend Simplify to everyone, everywhere. Read it right now!"-- Dan Chaon, author of Among the Missing and You Remind Me of Me

"The stories in this collection hum with speed and ferocity and a raw energy that exposes your nerve endings, wakes up places inside of you that you had happily lulled to sleep. The sharp-edged, hard-luck boys that populate these pages know exactly how you feel at two in the morning and are telling the truth about it. Simplify is ruthless and tender, truthful, full of heart and scary in all the right ways."-- Pam Houston, author of Cowboys are my Weakness

Tid Goldberg is the author of the novels Living Dead Girl and Fake Liar Cheat. His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Other Voices, The Sun, and Santa Monica Review, twice earning a Special Mention for the Pushcart Prize. He teaches creative writing at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.

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