Marine Park: Stories

"An astute, lively, and heartfelt debut story collection by an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction Marine Park isn't exactly New York City, or even Brooklyn. Bounded by Gerritsen Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, Kings Highway, and the salt marshes past Avenue U, it's a place where city residents rarely set foot. Even if they wanted to, they'd need to take the subway and a bus, and walk, far beyond the more familiar neighborhoods of Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Flatbush, or Sunset Park. In twenty-three-year-old Mark Chiusano, Marine Park finds its literary chronicler. The stories in this fierce and deeply felt new collection follow Lorris and his older brother Jamison as they emerge, gradually, into the no-man's-land of adolescence. Chiusano's dazzlingstories delve into family, boyhood, athletics, drugs, love, and all the weird quirks of growing up in a tight-knit community on the edge of the city. Reminiscent of Junot Di;az's Drown, Stuart Dybek's The Coast of Chicago, and Russell Banks's Trailerpark, this brilliant collection announces the arrival of a distinct new voice in American fiction-clean, beautiful, and piercing"--