From the intimate confines of a Nebraska farmhouse to the bustling streets of South America, the characters of Love, Dirt traverse uneasy spaces in search of human connection. A closeted teen on a trip to Chile hides in his parents’ bedroom to avoid being caught fooling around with a local boy. An elderly couple attempts to scale a volcano, wrestling with their own physical limitations and an unbearable loss in their past. A father becomes convinced that a daycare has swapped his toddler with a near-identical imposter. The public relations industry of Las Vegas is at first amused and then scandalized by a businesswoman’s ability to divine people’s birthplaces and childhood experiences just by listening to them speak. And a son’s long-deceased parents return to life as fumbling, inept zombies who are more nuisance than threat. In these and other stories, Bruce Johnson’s bold, thought-provoking debut explores how we are shaped by the narratives that we craft for ourselves and others.
“It takes Bruce Johnson two or three brushstrokes to draw one onto his canvas, concrete and clear and so poetic and resonating. These finely tuned stories of family and place, from Chiloé Island to Nevada, establish a momentum that finally forms into a vast, vibrant world.”—Percival Everett, author, James
“What a nimble, intelligent, far-ranging writer Bruce Johnson is. Johnson is equally adept at sharp-edged, gripping narratives, like ‘In Case I Don’t Call,’ in which a young man wants his sister to keep watch while he turns tricks, and sly, surreal tales like ‘The So-Called Jacob,’ in which a father, picking up his son at daycare, is offered a different boy. Love, Dirt is an absorbing and deeply rewarding collection.”—Margot Livesey, judge, Iowa Short Fiction Award
“Through a beautifully refracted lens, Bruce Johnson sheds fresh and true light onto the genuine strangeness in our relationships and choices.”—Aimee Bender, author, The Butterfly Lampshade
