LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE STORY PRIZE

Award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date

In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a childrens game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear.

With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desiresfor intimacy, atonement, comfortbloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changedand so do her readers.The Souvenir Museumshowcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.