Olivia Clare

“These insightful stories . . . flout convention and work in mysterious ways. Two in particular―‘Pétur’ and ‘The Visigoths’―will probably be anthologized and taught and cherished for years to come. They’re so well crafted . . . [they] flicker with moments of rare insight and nuance . . . makes me want to pick up whatever Clare publishes next.”

—The New York Times Book Review

"Intimate and incisive. . . . Clare's characters are believable in their frailty and vulnerability, and the clarity and strength of her voice gives these stories a lingering power." —Publishers Weekly

“If Karen Russell wrote realistic fiction . . . everyday people grappling with really big things . . . Disasters big and small about modern life and the difficulties of being a person connecting with other people, doing the right thing.”

—Book Riot

“Olivia Clare is pure literary dynamite. In these stories, humor and dread oscillate at sonic speed, and the worldliness of the sensibility never negates its vulnerability. Clare writes with Carveresque clarity and bite and an elegance all her own. A bravura debut.”

—Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander

and Paint It Black

Buy Disasters in the First World here:

Disasters in the First World: Stories

Grove Press/Black Cat, 2017

*Named a favorite book of 2017 by Ann Beattie in The Paris Review*