Small Beer Press Publisher Gavin Grant is understandably excited to point out Publishers Weekly‘s “PW Best Books 2011: The Top 10”. Specifically, the fourth entry on the list, which is Maureen McHugh’s After the Apocalypse. PW says of the book: “Incisive, contemporary, and always surprising, McHugh’s second collection confronts near-future life with an ironic and particular eye. Her characters live with zombies, struggle to make ends meet on the Arizona-Mexico border, and cope with China’s descent into capitalism in stories that stretch the boundaries of imagination.”
McHugh’s is the only sf/f/h book on the list, and first appeared in October.
The publisher describes the book thus: “The apocalypse was yesterday. These stories are today.
“In her new collection, Story Prize finalist Maureen F. McHugh delves into the dark heart of contemporary life and life five minutes from now and how easy it is to mix up one with the other. Her stories are post-bird flu, in the middle of medical trials, wondering if our computers are smarter than us, wondering when our jobs are going to be outsourced overseas, wondering if we are who we say we are, and not sure what we’d do to survive the coming zombie plague.”
The table of contents, including two stories available for free on the web (see this page for links) is:
“The Naturalist”
“Special Economics”
“Useless Things”
“The Lost Boy: A Reporter at Large”
“The Kingdom of the Blind”
“Going to France”
“Honeymoon”
“The Effect of Centrifugal Forces”
“After the Apocalypse”