Overview

Delightfully blending literary fiction with speculative genres, the stories in The Church of Divine Electricity somehow manage to feel as though they could take place today. In Emily Mitchell’s created worlds, as in our own, technology bewitches, especially with its ability to heighten both connections and isolation. Whether being held by a giant and comforting machine, allowing micro-drones to record one’s every moment for a year to win prize money, or choosing self-mutilation in exchange for a bionic hand, these characters navigate technological and social change. The familiar can turn unrecognizable and disorienting—sometimes in a flash, sometimes gradually. Lyrical, haunting, and often funny, these stories ask us to consider what—and who—gets left out of a seemingly utopian future of technological advancements. Finely observed, thoughtful, and vivid, Mitchell’s stories get under your skin. It’s not that the best-laid plans could lead us astray—it’s that they may already have.

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9780299354343

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Reviews

“These eerie fables of societies gone amok are almost too realistic to bear. Mitchell has written a fitting epitaph for our species: a darkly glittering gem of a book.” - Dan Chaon, author of One of Us “Mitchell’s prose is crystal clear—there’s no hiding the ball. It’s thoughtful, perceptive, vivid—and can steam up a mirror! This is excellent work, flawlessly executed.” - Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow “Mitchell is one of our most astute chroniclers of the way we live now. These diabolically inventive stories, often wickedly funny, vary thrillingly in tonal register and form. They ask all the big questions, including: Are we humans gone awry worth saving? Together, they whisper yes.” - Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women

Mitchell's prose is crystal clear - there's no hiding the ball. It's thoughtful, perceptive, vivid - and can steam up a mirror! This is excellent work, flawlessly executed."" - Michelle Latiolais, author of She and Widow

Author Information

Emily Mitchell, associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, is the author of a collection of short stories, Viral, and a novel, The Last Summer of the World. Her fiction has appeared in Harper’s, Ploughshares, The Sun, and elsewhere; her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times, the New Statesman, and Guernica. She serves as fiction editor for the New England Review. Emily Mitchell's website: https://www.emilymitchellwriter.com

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