The stories in Laura van den Berg's rich and inventive debut illuminate
the intersection of the mythic and the mundane: A failed actress takes a
job as a Bigfoot impersonator. A botanist seeking a rare flower crosses
paths with a group of men hunting the Loch Ness Monster. A disillusioned
missionary in Africa grapples with grief and a growing obsession with a
creature rumored to live in the forests of the Congo. And in the title
story, a young woman traveling with her scientist mother in Madagascar
confronts her burgeoning sexuality and her dream of becoming a
long-distance swimmer.
Rendered with precision and longing, the women who narrate these starkly
beautiful stories are consumed with searching--for absolution, for
solace, for the flash of extraordinary in the ordinary that will forever
alter their lives.