McSweeney's Books

ONEShe lay enshrouded in mist, wedged between two rocks. A dead body with the sea below and, above, the brow of the cliff.The fall had already transformed her; she looked vacant and unremarkable, utterly unlike her vivid, discontented self Her death felt lunatic in its incongruity.Wave after...

ACCIDENT You all get out of your cars. You are alone in yours, and there are three teenagers in theirs. The accident was your fault and you walk over to tell them this. Walking over to their car, an old and restored Camaro which you have ruined, it occurs to you that if the three teenagers are...

chapter i INTIMATIONS OF ROGUERY If the Reverend Dr. Morgan Dix, rector of Trinity Parish in New York City, had been so benighted as to believe in pixies, he would have sworn they were abroad on that otherwise pleasant Wednesday, February 18, 1880. The most mysterious and appalling visitation...

In April, the light is beautiful in Rwanda—soft and warm upon the incredible new green that bursts from the fields and mountains, a living green that surrounds us as we near the end of the rainy season. The roads are filled with people walking. A very few ride bikes, and fewer still ride little...

my defects I'm happy at least to do without a sexual relation and I have this fabulous reputation and how did I get that in the first place? I am proud enough of this reputation and it stands to reason there's a lot that's secret that I don't tell anyone. I want to end this at the flabber,...

FRONTISPIECE In the drawing Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty stand side by side on the shore. We see them from behind, but know, by their dress, whose pensive vista we are sharing. There is a breeze coming in, the flame from the Lady's torch, held tentatively at her hip, blowing toward us slightly....