{"product_id":"the-grief-shop-isbn-9781644215531","title":"The Grief Shop","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of \u003ci\u003eTransmutation\u003c\/i\u003e comes a linked collection of speculative short fiction following a woman who navigates surreal jobs in a near-future dystopia, where people have become completely numb to their emotions following a cataclysmic event.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Grief Shop and Other Stories from a Broken World\u003c\/i\u003e takes place after “the tragedy” transforms everyone into unfeeling people. At the center of the book is Gemma, who must cope with attempting to feel in light of the numbness. She works a series of jobs—at a grief-infused coffee shop, a boxing gym for pain therapy, a graveyard, and more—encountering a range of eccentric characters struggling to survive in a world where grief, ecstasy, suffering, and joy are commodities for some to purchase and for others to exploit. Gemma’s path is one of glimmering possibilities, ones with feelings she may not understand or accept.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Grief Shop\u003c\/i\u003e dares to wonder: how do we tell the story of being human when the very things that make us human have been stripped away from us?\"Sharp, inventive, and deeply human, \u003ci\u003eThe Grief Shop\u003c\/i\u003e is a look at how emotions make us who we are and the way those same feelings link us together. Simultaneously zooming in to the personal and out to the global, DiFrancesco is an astute observer of how we all tick.\"​ \u003cb\u003e—Never Angeline Nørth, author of \u003ci\u003eSARA or 'I lived my life as a cloud that followed overhead'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"With their latest collection, Alex DiFrancesco brings us quiet, melancholy stories from a future just a few moments away. \u003ci\u003eThe Grief Shop and Other Stories From a Broken World\u003c\/i\u003e holds space for both the deep alienation and profound emotional texture of our contemporary world, and a world just around the corner.”\u003cb\u003e—Cavar, author of \u003ci\u003eFailure to Comply\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e​\"What a gift to have this vision of a world beyond feeling and all its feverishly dreamed emotional hustles—and what a gift to have as our Virgil Alex DiFrancesco, that master of the punch that wakes up your heart.\" \u003cb\u003e—Jeanne Thornton, author of \u003ci\u003eA\/S\/L\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eALEX DIFRANCESCO\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the dystopian novel \u003ci\u003eAll City\u003c\/i\u003e, the story collection reflecting trans realities Transmutation, and the memoir \u003ci\u003eBreaking the Curse\u003c\/i\u003e (2024). About their debut story collection, Patrick Cottrell wrote in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e: “At the affective core of Transmutation is the question of how we can offer shelter for one another’s pain, real and imagined.” They are the winner of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2022, and their novel All City was the first awards finalist by a transgender author for the Ohioana Book Awards in its eighty-year history. They served as an assistant editor for Sundress Publications in Tennessee, and edited LGBTQIA+ non-fiction for Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Their work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eTin House\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePacific Standard\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEater\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eVol. 1 Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e, among others. DiFrancesco lives in Philadelphia.","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233677652197,"sku":"NP9781644215531","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781644215531.jpg?v=1773179301","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-grief-shop-isbn-9781644215531","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}