The Gender of Inanimate Objects and Other Stories

In the phosphorescent title novella of Laura Marello's collection, an enigmatic drifter pursues her circuitous path through the intricate cultural terrain of Sweetwater County, California, a patchwork of communities where "everyone speaks the wrong language." Through subtle, disciplined prose inflected with the deep colors and clear lines of ancient Mykonos and the northern Californian coast, "The Gender of Inanimate Objects and Other Stories" depicts the liminal and often surreal states of temp