eightball (Paperback)

eightball By Elizabeth Geoghegan Cover Image

eightball (Paperback)

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Eightball strikes hard. Fueled by an abiding sense of loss, these eight stories take you on a journey over the exploded fault lines of intimacy, unfolding across cities and continents. Whether hitchhiking the Italian Veneto, trekking through a pitch-black Balinese rice field, or queuing for drinks in a crowded Seattle bar, Geoghegan sets her characters adrift in a world that stakes its claim to the enigmatic terrain of desire.

This collection of darkly comic, occasionally violent, tales is anchored by the eponymous “eightball,” a coming of age novella about a sister and brother guided by the inertia of recklessness and self-destruction. A protégé of the late Lucia Berlin, Elizabeth Geoghegan writes lyric, place-driven prose laced with edgy realism and wry wit.
Elizabeth Geoghegan was born in New York, grew up in the Midwest, and lives in Rome. She is the author of Natural Disasters and the bestselling memoir The Marco Chronicles. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Best Travel Writing, El Pais, and elsewhere.
Product Details ISBN: 9781939650955
ISBN-10: 193965095X
Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project
Publication Date: May 1st, 2019
Pages: 235
Language: English
"A masterful collection laced with dark humor, aching grief and great tenderness. Geoghegan's stories take us around the world, from a beach house on the Atlantic all the way to Bali and Rome and the quiet power of her voice reaches both heart and bone." —Francesca Marciano, author of The Other Language, (stories) and novels Rules of The Wild, The End of Manners,and Casa Rossa.

“A masterful collection laced with dark humor, aching grief and great tenderness. Geoghegan’s stories take us around the world, from a beach house on the Atlantic all the way to Bali and Rome and the quiet power of her voice reaches both heart and bone.” —Francesca Marciano, author of The Other Language, Rules of The Wild, The End of Manners, and Casa Rossa

"Eightball’s magical thinking leaves me wonderstruck. If Lucia Berlin is early Patti Smith, then Elizabeth Geoghegan is Blondie and Joan Jett and Florence and the Machine in one big literary sandwich." —Susan Bradley Smith, author of the verse novels The Postcult Heart, The Screaming Middle, and Beds For All Who Come

"Geoghegan's eloquently told stories examine themes of loneliness, sex, addiction, and grief through the lens of unfamiliar cultures and languages. The thread that holds it all together is Geoghegan's cool, articulate demeanor and masterful writing." —Kirkus

"Let Elizabeth Geoghegan’s provocative, poetic prose be your guide through eightball, her collection of eight short stories that emphasize the different features that love, intimacy, desire, and lust can bring out in a person." —Bailey Drumm, Atticus Review  

"A baby dropped into a river, a pair of brothers grappling with addiction, and a young woman finds herself infatuated by a young man we only know as Tree boy. These are three of the tales Elizabeth Geoghegan spins in her new collection Eightball out from the Santé Fe Writer’s project. The stories also take place across the globe, including Rome, Paris, Thailand, and Seattle. Geoghegan’s true gift is that she seems to truly understand human nature, even when it breaks our hearts, and it is so satisfying. These carefully written short stories often bend and twist in the most unexpected ways." —Gretchen Lida, Book Riot