LORI OSTLUND, AUTHOR

Are You Happy?: Stories

Nine exquisite stories that explore class, desire, identity, and the specter of violence that looms daily over women and the LGBTQ+ community. In prose that is evocative and restrained, unpredictable and masterful, Lori Ostlund offers a darkly humorous and compassionate examination of America’s preoccupation with loneliness, happiness, guns, and violence.

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"In Lori Ostlund’s brilliant stories, the shadows of childhood reappear without warning, threaten to swallow the adult lives her characters have worked so hard to build, and violence lurks under the placid surface of the everyday."

"Lori Ostlund is funny and wry; her work cuts to the quick... I’ve long been a fan of hers and this book does not disappoint. A short story collection that is truly all hits, no misses.”

"Once I read the first story in Are You Happy?, I put aside everything else to savor the rest. This is a wise collection, capturing its characters swimming upstream to encounter their fates."

"I don’t know if there’s anyone in the country writing better short stories than Lori Ostlund at the moment. Not for my money, at least. This is as near to perfect as a short story collection can get.”

"Lori Ostlund is one of our country’s finest short story writers, a true national gem... Relevant, devastating, and ultimately redemptive, this book is a must have for anyone who cares about anything."

Praise for Lori Ostlund

"Ostlund wields language in terribly complex ways building exceptional sentences, long and swollen with nuance and history, creating narratives that take the long way around."

"So rare does one see a wise writer like Lori Ostlund... portraying life with its most complex and wondrous dynamics in time and space.... A new talent to celebrate!”

"Whether charting the loneliness of youth, or tracing the emotional upheavals of lovers abroad, Ostlund proves to be a wise, charming, and irresistible guide.”

"Ostlund has a keen insight into human behavior that allows the reader to recognize themselves in characters with whom, outwardly, they have absolutely nothing in common."

"Ostlund’s stories are so freakishly focused and darkly atmospheric... you may find yourself especially noticing your fellow human animals’ oddities in the days after you read them..."