In his debut story collection Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories, Edward Hamlin doesn’t shy away from difficult conflict, nor does he allow his characters much respite.

Moments of tenderness are rare in this collection, which sees lives ruined and cattle murdered all in the name of retribution, but when some tenderness does bleed through, it’s usually in relation to animals.

In twenty-five stories (twenty-six if you count an unusually haunting Note on the Type), Michel ventures through a tainted American landscape full of monsters, pitfalls, neglected gods, and robot butlers. The appeal here is in being disoriented, moving abruptly from one reality to another—even within the confines of a single piece.

Characters like Harriet appear only rarely in fiction for the same reason they’re overlooked in real life: they can’t tell their own stories. Evison has given Harriet Chance not one voice but two in a book that should make us take a closer look at the women we know who never “made a name” for themselves.”