* FINALIST for the 2014
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
* WINNER of the 2014 FLORIDA BOOK AWARDS' SILVER MEDAL for FICTION
* WINNER of the
2015 GLCA NEW WRITERS AWARD
* LONGLISTED for the
2015 PEN/ROBERT W. BINGHAM PRIZE
The Heaven of Animals is an extraordinary debut from Florida author David James Poissant, a Venn diagram of the miraculous and the absurd. Like Flannery O'Connor, Poissant's stories are marked by violence, humor, and grace; like Saunders, Poissant can spoon-bend reality; like Carver and Diaz, he writes scenes soaked in kerosene and seconds from combustion. In these pages you'll find charming reprobates and self-deluded hustlers, young lovers, alligators and dead dogs, fathers and sons, all the warped love of family, the batshit hilarity of the South, and the "geometry" of loss.
- Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and Swamplandia!
Poissant is a first-rate storyteller who has an appreciation for the absurd turns of events that press down into all we try to keep buried until we have no choice but to face the people we are when we're alone in the dark.
- Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever
David James Poissant is one of our finest young writers, with a taut and subtle prose style, a deep knowledge of craft, and a heart so vast it encompasses whole worlds.
- Lauren Groff, author of Arcadia and The Monsters of Templeton
Poissant is an extraordinary talent.
- Laura van den Berg, author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us
"A wise debut collection. Beautiful stories, with a rogue touch."
-Rebecca Lee, The New York Times Book Review