Lake effect

by Hillary Behrman

Chosen by Lauren Groff as the Winner of the 2024 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction.

Lake Effect is forthcoming from Sarabande Books in 2026.

Synopsis:

Wild places and hidden urban spaces exert a gravitational pull on the lives of the characters who populate the pages of Lake Effect, Hillary Behrman’s debut short story collection. On the surface of an ancient bone-dry lake, amidst pockets of urban wilderness, on top of unmapped mountain ridges, and in cities ranging from Seattle to Istanbul the characters in these stories are always on the move but are rarely headed to the places they want to be. Viv’s already tenuous grip on reality is shattered when she is forced to leave the safety of her remote desert outpost. Paula’s real life and dream life become indistinguishable when she meets Marcus while working at a local hospital. Oliver can’t seem to shed the hold of family lore and superstition as he negotiates his love affair with Daniel. Siblings, Alex and Marcie, are comforted and scraped raw by intimacy as they traverse the years from juvenile vandalism to a labor and delivery gone terribly wrong. Miles searches for his mother in a homeless encampment beneath a maze of freeways. And in the aftermath of her mother’s death, Sam finds herself miles from shore on a frozen lake with a virtual stranger. These unsettling stories question the limits of our well-intentioned efforts to care for each other in our ever more inhospitable world.

Advanced Praise for Lake Effect

“The characters in Lake Effect are traveling unknown territories, both geographically and personally: they live between desire and understanding and yearn to comprehend their relationships with others. Through an array of voices and places, Behrman asks us to be in conversation about what it means to exist in our world. Compassionate, original, and finely composed, these stories have a sense of adventure that makes the world seem larger. This collection has emotion, technical virtuosity, linguistic ferocity, and empathy. An outstanding debut.”

Nina McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians(winner of the PEN Open Book Award) and How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder.

"From the gritty constraints of urban poverty to the ecstatic escape of the natural world, these stories take you on journeys that will transform and haunt you. Each character contains multitudes, each line is poetry, each scene feels as vital and meaningful as the most pivotal days of your own life. With enormous empathy and impeccable craftsmanship, Behrman probes the difficult lives of her characters and lays bare hard truths that others are afraid to utter. This masterful book is an essential addition to U.S. literature, and Hillary Behrman is a writer to watch.”

Valerie Laken, author of Dream House and Separate Kingdoms

“The stories in Lake Effect are written with such forgiving tenderness that every character, no matter how worn down or marginalized, becomes someone we know, someone we care about and worry about.  Behrman lifts them all up to the light with masterly understanding and grace. Every one of these stories is deeply satisfying to read, and difficult to forget.”

Molly Gloss, author of The Hearts of Horses and The Jump-Off Creek

“What’s the collective noun for a group of hardscrabble stories so clear and compassionate, they break your heart? A Lake Effect. A Hillary Behrman. You will feel these beautifully resonant stories of resistance long after you finish reading them.”

Samantha Hunt, Author of The Dark Dark, The Seas, and The Unwritten Book

 “In a stunning debut collection, Hillary Behrman gives us a world of stories that covers a remarkable range of lives lived in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. In tough and evocative prose, Behrman renders moments that illuminate not only the lives of her characters, but our lives as well.  These stories will take up residence in your heart and mind, linger long after the page is turned, the book closed.  In short, Behrman is a writer to watch for.”  

Claire Davis, Author of Winter Range, Season of the Snake, and Labors of the Heart

“Attentive, richly detailed stories told with a signature cool compassion. Behrman creates, again and again, a kind of meditative stream of memory full of sore spots, private understandings and a litany of connections both found and missed.  What lingers is her ability to conjure the secretive interior lives of characters in all their understated, overlooked, often inexpressible yearning.”

Cate Kennedy, Author of The World Beneath and Like a House on Fire

“Lake Effect has everything I respect and adore in a short story collection: Unforgettable, real, raw characters who have something new to say about our lived experience. Landscape powerfully rendered. Stunning writing. And stories that break and mend us. A gorgeous debut.”

Laura Pritchett, author of Three Keys and Playing with {Wild}Fire

To learn more about this collection, please contact Hillary.