All the Anxious Girls on Earth

All the Anxious Girls on Earth marks the debut of a startingly original literary voice. Zsuzsi Gartner's exuberant prose gives voice to unforgettable characters who survive by their wits as they cope with indifferent relationships, lackluster jobs, and the myriad curve-balls life throws their way.

A woman calls in fake bomb threats from the nineteenth floor of a bank tower as revenge against her ex-lover. The mother of a girl killed by a teenage urban guerilla thrives spectacularly in her industrious grief, transforming herself into a forgiveness guru and talk-show host. Lured into the wilderness by her desire for a man who rebuilds vintage airplanes, a young woman finds she lusts more for biscotti and city sidewalks. A small, heroic child makes a guileless request for pajamas and creates a psychic storm at the center of her anxious, achievement-mad parents' lives.

Rendered in a jittery, jazzed-up prose that has been compared to that of Lorrie Moore and Mary Flanagan, these stories brilliantly capture the pathos, beauty, and alienation of contemporary life and signal the arrival of a writer to watch.

"Gartner writes smart, delicious fiction. . . . Consider it double espresso for the soul." —Vancouver Courier

"[Zsuzsi Gartner] is a brilliant, ball-busting, mind-expanding writer. . . . You can't imagine how you've lived your life without [her] wacky and beautiful stories to keep you balanced, sane, and in tune and touch with what otherwise might seem a sordid world." —The Globe and Mail

"These stories sing with brightness, and the sentences are often dazzling. But beneath the glow nestles the lurk and pull of violence, and it is this crack inside the glass that pushes these stories and characters into frightening, riveting, complex territories." —Aimee Bender

"Zsuzsi Gartner's collection is better than great. The language dances on the pages." —Calgary Herald