Stark and vibrant, the two halves of this sutured book expose the Frankenstein-like scars of the assemblage we call “human”
In “Another Governess” a woman in a decaying manor tries to piece together her own story. In “The Least Blacksmith” a man cannot help but fail his older brother as they struggle to run their father’s forge.
Each of the stories stands alone, sharing neither characters nor settings. But together, they ask the same question: What are the wages of being? The relentless darkness of these tales is punctured by hope—the violent hope of the speaking subject.
Contents
Foreword by Ben Marcus
Another Governess
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
The Least Blacksmith
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Joanna Ruocco coedits Birkensnake, a journal of fiction. She is author of The Mothering Coven and Man’s Companions.
“Visceral and elegantly brutal, Joanna Ruocco’s latest deftly zags from feculent domesticity to brotherly nightmare. A startling, alarming, and highly accomplished book.” —Brian Evenson, author of Fugue State: Stories
“Joanna Ruocco is very funny and very serious and very smart and very curious and very good at making stories that map the unmappable wrinkles of the mind. Another Governess/The Least Blacksmith confirms Ruocco’s major talent and takes it a step further. What a pleasure to read her work, to revel in it.” —Laird Hunt, author of The Impossibly: A Novel