A little girl who disguises herself as an old man, an addict who
collects dollhouse furniture, a crime reporter confronted by a talking
dog, a painter trying to prove the non-existence of god, and lovers in a
penal colony who communicate through technical drawings--these are just a
few of the characters who live among the ruins. RUIN is
both bracingly timely and eerily timeless in its examination of an
American state in free-fall, unsparing in its disregard for broken
institutions, while shining with compassion for all who are left in
their wake. Cara Hoffman's short fictions are brutal, surreal,
hilarious, and transgressive, celebrating the sharp beauty of outsiders
and the infinitely creative ways humans muster psychic resistance under
oppressive conditions. The ultimate effect of these ten interconnected
stories is one of invigoration and a sense of possibilities--hope for a
new world extracted from the rubble of the old.
