Red Girl Rat Boy

**A *Quill & Quire* Best Book of the Year

A *Globe & Mail* Best Short Fiction Title

A *National Post* Best Short Fiction Title

A *January Magazine* Best Book of the Year**

"Complicated, passionate, genuine."—*Chatelaine*

Women. Young women, old women. The hair-obsessed, the politically driven, the sure-footed, the bony-butted, the awkward and compulsive and alone. Sleep-deprived and testy. Exhausted and accepting. Among the innumerable wives, husbands, sisters, and in-laws vexed by short temper and insecurity throughout this short story collection, Cynthia Flood’s protagonists stand out as citizens of a reality that the rest of the world will only partially understand. New from the Journey Prize-winning author, *Red Girl Rat Boy* is a collection of astonishing range and assured technique, whose voices—gothic, peculiar, domestic, and strange—remain as passionate and complex as ever.

Praise for ** *Red Girl Rat Boy* **

“Revenge and politics season this potent and passionate collection of stories. Flood excavates indelible histories that haunt even those who’ve shaken the dust of the past.” —**Aritha van Herk, author of *Judith***

“Flood’s eye is unflinching, her language energetic and precise, her vision bracing, passionate and entirely lacking in sentimentality.”—**Nancy Richler, author of *The Imposter Bride***

“The notary in ‘Dirty Work’ has ‘retired from witnessing how rough human existence is.’ Fortunately for us, Cynthia Flood has not … these stories prove her to be among our great North American fiction writers.”—**Betsy Warland, author of *Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing***

“Raw energy is Cynthia Flood’s territory. This is a superb collection.”—**Laurie Lewis, author of *Little Comrades***

“Cynthia Flood is full of surprises. If there’s one thing that characterizes her elegant, crystal-sharp short stories, it’s that element of surprise … they reward the attentive reader with surprise and delight”—Dave Margoshes, author of ** *A Book of Great Worth* **