Tin House Memory Tin House Magazine

“A whole culture is imaginatively and authoritatively illuminated” in this “suspenseful, insightful, poignant” novel of prehistoric times (Publishers Weekly). Twenty thousand years ago, a courageous girl lived in Siberia near Woman Lake, a place you won’t find on any modern map. Only thirteen, Yanan and her companions—hunters of deer, gatherers of roots and twigs—struggle to survive the harsh realities of hunger and cold, bound by an unending cycle of birth, kinship, violence, and death. As Yanan recounts the terrible adventures of her brief life, she departs on spirit journeys that evoke the lives of the animals to which she and her people are intimately linked. A lyrical novel of our species’ prehistory, Reindeer Moon opens up corridors to the imagination that lead us back to the long-forgotten echoes of our distant human past. “Unforgettable . . . Reindeer Moon beautifully resurrects a lost world of merciless magnificence. Dozens of memorable characters live and die in this moving tale, which should become a classic.” —Chicago Tribune Book World “Those familiar with the author’s landmark study, The Harmless People, will not be surprised at the range of anthropological information she brings to her first novel, or at the lucidity of her prose. What will astonish, engross and move readers in her narrative of a group of hunter-gatherers who lived 20,000 years ago is the dramatic immediacy of the story and the depth and range of character development.” —Publishers Weekly

A cool, unsettling story of grief and starting over – from the Guardian First Book Award long-listed collection Man V. Nature After the death of her husband a woman is relocated by the Placement Team to a prisonlike shelter for widows and the unwanted. There she is offered only one option: to prepare for her next husband. “Moving On” is the bold and brilliant opening story from Diane Cook’s critically acclaimed, award-winning debut collection Man v. Nature. Praise for Man V. Nature ‘A knockout ... every single story could make a great movie.’ Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man ‘Man V. Nature could also be called Diane Cook V. The Challenges of Writing Fresh, Invigorating Fiction in Our Age. In the latter contest, Cook crushes. Here is a bold debut.’ Sam Lipsyte, author of Home Land ‘Astonishing ... the stories are surreal, with the sharpest edge and in one way or another, each story reveals something raw and powerful about being human in a world where so little is in our control.’ Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

A BuzzFeed Best Historical Fiction Book of Summer and Best Book of August Lit Hub Best Book of Summer and a Tor Best Horror Book of the Month A Crime Reads' and Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year A transporting, otherworldly debut of a young woman’s fated return to a wind-battered island off the coast of Scotland, and the dark forces—old and new—that she finds there. The islanders have only three rules: don’t stick your nose where it’s not wanted, don’t mention the war, and never let your guard down during October. Leigh Welles has not set foot on the island in years, but when she finds herself called home from life on the Scottish mainland by her father’s unexpected death, she is determined to forget the sorrows of the past—her mother’s abandonment, her brother’s icy distance, the unspeakable tragedy of World War II—and start fresh. Fellow islander Iain MacTavish, an RAF veteran with his eyes on the sky and his head in the past, is also in desperate need of a new beginning. A young widower, Iain struggles to return to the normal life he knew before the war. But this October is anything but normal. This October, the sluagh are restless. The ominous, birdlike creatures of Celtic legend—whispered to carry the souls of the dead—have haunted the islanders for decades, but in the war’s wake, there are more wandering souls and more sluagh. When a young man disappears, Leigh and Iain are thrown together to investigate the truth at the island’s dark heart and reveal hidden secrets of their own. Rich with historical detail, a skillful speculative edge, and a deep imagination, Emma Seckel’s propulsive and transporting debut The Wild Hunt unwinds long-held tales of love, loss, and redemption.

What is memory? How does it work? Reliable, unreliable, manipulated, historical, contradictory--from pure speculation to hard cognitive science, this issue brings you fiction, poetry, interviews, essays, and memoirs that explore memory.

Tin Houseis a beautifully designed periodical that features the best writers of our time alongside a new generation of talent poised to become the most important voices of the future. For the special 50th issue, Tin House has some fun with the idea of beauty, providing personal takes on what is "beautiful." The issue showcases fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that confront the notions of beauty across cultures, economic strata, genders, and races. What is beauty? What is art? Think of Francis Bacon: "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." This new issue also includes pieces that look into the marketing of beauty, and how notions of beauty are used to create celebrity, and at the same time to marginalize and exclude. Content includes unique departments such as "Lost and Found," in which writers review overlooked or underrated books, and "Blithe Spirits" and "Readable Feast," which present tales and recipes for drinks and food in a literary way.

A Vulture Best Short Book A She Reads Indie Book Club Pick for Summer “Alexis Smith’s brilliant debut novel is filled with kaleidoscopic pleasures. Line by line, in and out of time, this is a haunted, joyful, beautiful book—a true gift.” —Karen Russell “Her story could be told in other people’s things. The postcards and the photographs. A garnet ring and a needlepoint of the homestead. The aprons hanging from her kitchen door. Her soft, faded, dog-eared copy of Little House in the Big Woods. A closet full of dresses sewn before she was born. All these things tell a story, but is it hers?” Isabel is a single twenty-something in Portland, Oregon, who repairs damaged books in the basement of the local library, dreaming of a life she can’t quite reach. She is filled with longing—for a life in Amsterdam even though she’s never visited, for the unrequited love of a coworker, for a simpler time from her childhood in Alaska among the threatened glaciers she loves, and for the perfect vintage dress to wear to a party that just might change everything. Unfolding over the course of a single day, Alexis M. Smith’s shimmering debut finds Isabel looking into her past—remembering her parents’ separation, a meeting with an astrologer, and a life-changing encounter with a glacier—and shows us how fleeting, everyday moments can reveal an entire life. In classic movies, in old photographs and unsent postcards, rare books, and thrifted gems, Glaciers tells the story of a young woman’s love of the past and a hope to make something new and all her own.

From bestselling author Claire Fuller comes a portrait of life on the fringes of society, a heart-stopping novel of betrayal and resilience, love and survival. What if the life you have always known is taken from you in an instant? What would you do to get it back? Twins Jeanie and Julius have always been different from other people. At fifty-one years old, they still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation and poverty. But when Dot dies suddenly, threats start raining down. Jeanie and Julius would do anything to preserve their small sanctuary against the perils of the outside world, even as their mother’s secrets begin to unravel, putting everything they thought they knew about their lives at stake.

A searingly beautiful coming-of-age memoir about a girl who begins to see her parents' ghosts after their tragic deaths. An Oprah.com Editor's Pick and a Paris Review Staff Pick Eighteen-year-old Regina McBride is haunted by the ghosts of her parents. Her father visits her—he is desperate, but she doesn’t know how to help him. Her mother is a quiet figure, obscured by light—a flash at the foot of the bed. Regina, raised Irish Catholic and with the ironclad belief that some sins are unforgivable, fears her parents are trapped between worlds, forever punished after they committed suicide within a few months of each other. Terrorized by these visitations and flattened by grief, Regina slowly begins her hazardous journey to recovery. Lyrical and lovely, harrowing and haunting, Ghost Songs charts her struggle to separate madness from imagination and sorrow from devastation. From New York to the desert of New Mexico to the shores of Ireland, Regina searches for herself, her home, and a way to return to the family that remains. Ghost Songs is an exploration of memory, a meditation on love and loss, and, in the end, a celebration of life and the living.