In this debut collection, celebrated journalist Patrick Strickland's vivid and character-driven stories are as true to life as his award-winning reportage.
In A History of Heartache, boys grow up fast in the blazing heat of North Texas, and men grow old before their time. A wayward son rides shotgun into a night he can't take back. A janitor at an abortion clinic can’t outrun a ghost—or a camera. Strickland writes with clear-eyed realism and unsparing craftsmanship about common people—fathers and sons; widowers and junkies—poised on the knife-edge of hope.
With taut sentences and a wicked sense of humor, these 14 stories chart the small mercies and big mistakes that make a life: the songs we inherit, the bottles we empty, the tools we fashion from whatever’s at hand. Gritty and tender in the same breath, this debut fiction collection asks what it costs to stay, what it takes to leave, and who we become when we do. Readers of Denis Johnson and Ron Rash will recognize the hard light, bruised humor, and sudden grace that burn through these pages.
"Strickland laces his hardscrabble scenes with lyricism … In each piece, grief underscores the characters’ recklessness, imbuing the collection with an unsentimental but tender emotional register. Strickland’s humane depictions of people living on the margins acknowledge the forces that shape them." — Publishers Weekly
"Patrick Strickland writes with economy, muscle, and beauty, and these stories can both break and warm your heart at the same time." — Michael Farris Smith, author of Lay Your Armor Down and Desperation Road
"Easily the best collection of short fiction I've read in years, A History of Heartache not only proves Strickland's skill as a reporter is matched only by his gift as a storyteller, it marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction." — Marya Hornbacher, New York Times-bestselling author of Wasted and The Center of Winter
"Meet Strickland’s hard-boiled, broken, and downtrodden — North America’s lost. Read their stories of motel graveyard shifts, single parenting, and drinking. Just know your heart will break." — Adrianne Kalfopoulou, author of A History of Too Much and The Re in Refuge
Patrick Strickland is a journalist and author from Texas who has reported from some fifteen countries across Europe, the Middle East, and North America. His reportage has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Politico, The Guardian, Vice, In These Times, and elsewhere. He is the author of Alerta! Alerta!View titles by Patrick Strickland
In this debut collection, celebrated journalist Patrick Strickland's vivid and character-driven stories are as true to life as his award-winning reportage.
In A History of Heartache, boys grow up fast in the blazing heat of North Texas, and men grow old before their time. A wayward son rides shotgun into a night he can't take back. A janitor at an abortion clinic can’t outrun a ghost—or a camera. Strickland writes with clear-eyed realism and unsparing craftsmanship about common people—fathers and sons; widowers and junkies—poised on the knife-edge of hope.
With taut sentences and a wicked sense of humor, these 14 stories chart the small mercies and big mistakes that make a life: the songs we inherit, the bottles we empty, the tools we fashion from whatever’s at hand. Gritty and tender in the same breath, this debut fiction collection asks what it costs to stay, what it takes to leave, and who we become when we do. Readers of Denis Johnson and Ron Rash will recognize the hard light, bruised humor, and sudden grace that burn through these pages.
Reviews
"Strickland laces his hardscrabble scenes with lyricism … In each piece, grief underscores the characters’ recklessness, imbuing the collection with an unsentimental but tender emotional register. Strickland’s humane depictions of people living on the margins acknowledge the forces that shape them." — Publishers Weekly
"Patrick Strickland writes with economy, muscle, and beauty, and these stories can both break and warm your heart at the same time." — Michael Farris Smith, author of Lay Your Armor Down and Desperation Road
"Easily the best collection of short fiction I've read in years, A History of Heartache not only proves Strickland's skill as a reporter is matched only by his gift as a storyteller, it marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction." — Marya Hornbacher, New York Times-bestselling author of Wasted and The Center of Winter
"Meet Strickland’s hard-boiled, broken, and downtrodden — North America’s lost. Read their stories of motel graveyard shifts, single parenting, and drinking. Just know your heart will break." — Adrianne Kalfopoulou, author of A History of Too Much and The Re in Refuge
Patrick Strickland is a journalist and author from Texas who has reported from some fifteen countries across Europe, the Middle East, and North America. His reportage has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Politico, The Guardian, Vice, In These Times, and elsewhere. He is the author of Alerta! Alerta!View titles by Patrick Strickland
