Atavists: Stories - Hardcover

by Lydia Millet (Author)

The word atavism, coined by a botanist and popularized by a criminologist, refers to the resurfacing of a primitive evolutionary trait or urge in a modern being. This inventive collection from Lydia Millet offers overlapping tales of urges ranging from rage to jealousy to yearning--a fluent triumph of storytelling, rich in ideas and emotions both petty and grand.

The titular atavists include an underachieving, bewildered young bartender; a middle-aged mother convinced her gentle son-in-law is fixated on geriatric porn; a bodybuilder with an incel's fantasy life; an arrogant academic accused of plagiarism; and an empty-nester dad determined to host refugees in a tiny house in his backyard.

As they pick away at the splitting seams in American culture, Millet's characters shimmer with the sense of powerlessness we share in an era of mass overwhelm. A beautician in a waxing salon faces a sudden resurgence of grief in the midst of a bikini Brazilian; a couple sets up a camera to find out who's been slipping homophobic letters into their mailbox; a jilted urban planner stalks a man she met on a dating app.

In its rich warp and weft of humiliations and human error, Atavists returns to the trenchant, playful social commentary that made A Children's Bible a runaway hit. In these stories sharp observations of middle-class mores and sanctimony give way to moments of raw exposure and longing: Atavists performs an uncanny fictional magic, full of revelation but also hilarious, unpretentious, and warm.

Back Jacket

Praise for Lydia Millet

"Is there a writer more profound and less pretentious than Lydia Millet? In her novels and story collections, a dozen in all, Millet deals out existential questions like playing cards, and like any good casino dealer, her hands never shake."
-- NPR

"[Millet is] one of the funniest writers of American fiction, a rival of George Saunders, Paul Beatty, Nell Zink, and Donald Antrim."
-- Christian Lorentzen, New York

"[S]harp and implacably funny. . . . Millet's novels draw solace from the idea that we are infinitely bigger than ourselves."
-- Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

"If you think it's hard to find original voices in contemporary fiction, you're not really reading properly--Millet is one such voice: comic, erudite, humane."
-- Jonny Diamond, Lit Hub editor in chief

"Millet is one of the most fascinating novelists working."
-- Wall Street Journal Magazine

"Millet's great insight--why her writing matters so much right now--is that looking outside the human is what gives human life its meaning."
-- Christine Smallwood, New York Times Magazine