Real Life and Other Fictions

Reviews

'If you're fascinated by unexplained phenomena, hop in a beat-up Audi with the kooky and supersmart Cassie Klein and her dog Luna for a voyage of discovery involving a giant moth, a West Virginia bridge collapse and a hot cryptozoologist. The droll Ms. Coll strikes again!' '[REAL LIFE AND OTHER FICTIONS] effortlessly mixes a journey around grief, reinvention and romance in midlife with the myth of a moth and the supernatural . . . a big blend of genres that is not just effective but delightful.' 'Coll's deadpan narrative voice, once it hits you, is like when a stand-up comic finds your funny bone and you just can't stop laughing. And yet the laughter never fails to somehow encompass the obduracy of loss and other woes of this mortal coil. A kooky treasure, rooted in the deeply literary, slightly askew interior world that makes this author's work so fine.' 'Susan Coll is a master of comic fiction, delivering the perfect balance of humor and heart in this deliciously funny book about grief, secrets, and the stories we tell each other and ourselves to survive. REAL LIFE AND OTHER FICTIONS is the charming, warmhearted novel you're looking for!' 'A heart-forward and perfectly comic starting-over novel, REAL LIFE AND OTHER FICTIONS shows that when you stop searching so hard for certain answers to explain your life, different questions can emerge that reveal the past, present, and future in new and slightly surreal ways. Susan Coll's Cassie is almost every dog-loving woman of a certain age: deeply annoyed, intensely curious, slightly impulsive, and forever hopeful. What an absolute delight.' 'Don't be fooled by Susan Coll's delightful new novel. You may think you're reading a snappy rom com with a wacky heroine and an adorable puppy stranded in a town depicted with Nabokovian humor, but REAL LIFE AND OTHER FICTIONS slyly leads us to ponder essential questions: How do we make sense of the inexplicable? What damage is wrought by silence? Can we change our lives?' 'A crumbling marriage, stalled writing ambitions, and a lifetime of questions suppressed by her family about the tragedy that shaped her childhood lead Cassie on an impromptu journey to solve the mystery that has always plagued her regarding her unusual past. With an unruly puppy as her travel companion, bad weather, broken eyeglasses, and spotty GPS coverage, Cassie has no choice but to let instinct guide her on this chaotic, quirky, and heartwarming quest. REAL LIFE AND OTHER FICTIONS is that rare jewel of a story: one that both entertains and enlightens, one that makes pandemonium profound. Susan Coll is a literary alchemist--a writer who combines comedy and calamity and turns it into storytelling gold.' Expand reviews