Atavists

Cheaper in another edition — £14.99 at Waterstones Atavists · See that edition →

From Lydia Millet- the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves (Chicago Tribune)-comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists follows a group of families, couples and loners in their collisions, confessions and conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns, beauty salons, tech-bro mansions, assisted-living facilities, big-box stores, gastropubs, college campuses and medieval role-playing festivals.The various -ists who people these linked stories-from futurists to insurrectionists to cosmetologists-include a professor who's morbidly fixated on an old friend's Instagram account, a woman convinced that her bright young son-in-law is watching geriatric porn, a bodybuilder who lives an incel's fantasy life, a couple who surveil the neighbours after finding obscene notes in their mailbox, a pretentious academic accused of plagiarism, and a suburban ex-marathoner father obsessed with hosting refugees in a tiny house in...

The cheapest new copy of Atavists is €22.95 at preigu DE. Prices checked 12 Nov 2026

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