Very Short Lives is forthcoming in June 2027 from JackLeg Press.
Book description: In his fourth collection of short stories, Christopher Linforth explores profound questions about dysfunctional men and cultural violence. Set in the US, Europe, and online and peopled with jilted boyfriends and narcissistic artists, Scandinavian polycules and animal ghosts, Very Short Lives depicts a suite of tailspinning relationships that excavate the darker side of human nature. Linforth delivers a remarkable range of unsettling and powerful stories, a fractured series of snapshots of our unsettled world.
PRAISE
The prose in these stories is consistently sharp, surprising, and powerful. Linforth writes with an energy and inventiveness that I admire and is rare in contemporary fiction. These stories explore alienation and cultural collapse with great humor and insight, and they present an indelible portrait of a society teetering on the brink. This is my favorite kind of flash fiction, in which the author has full control over the language and the story world, and every short piece feels like it encompasses so much more than what’s on the page.
— Tom McAllister, author of How To Be Safe
These daring stories, that pulse with energy and invention, take us deep into a fragmented world where the inhabitants attempt to navigate their lives and times, which, as you will recognize, ultimately mirror our own, as great fiction always does. Linforth is an absolutely master stylist.
— Marlin Barton, author of Children of Dust and Pasture Art
With a savage combination of wit and tenderness, Christopher Linforth gives voice to a host of peculiar characters caught in moments of intense vulnerability. From a history teacher facing off against an anti-imperialist bird, to a love-stricken delivery driver engaged in a showdown with a human eel, to a giant ant seeking assistance from an opioid dealer, these vignettes blur the line between realism and absurdism. Linforth’s fiction expertly bridges the divide between the playful and the earnest with an eye toward understanding how we can retain our humanity in an increasingly inhuman world.
— Jeremy Griffin, author of Scream Queen
Christopher Linforth’s Very Short Lives is a mesmerizing tapestry of desire, dissonance, and debauchery, a mosaic of anti-heroes whose facades of strength and confidence prove to be gossamer shields against their own frailties. Realism with a dash of magical realism, these lyrical pieces are short in length but long in staying power, like the tip of Hemingway’s iceberg, suggesting the bulky, destructive weight of emotional turmoil beneath the surface. This is a singular collection from a mature and captivating artist.
— Darrin Doyle, author of The Boy Behind the World
