Heartbroke [Hardcover]

Winner of the California Book Award

From the acclaimed author of Godshot and “a pitch-perfect ventriloquist of extraordinary talent and ferocity” (T Kira Madden) comes a defining book of Californian stories where everyone is seeking or sabotaging love

United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to recoup her own lost motherhood. A phone-sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny.

Heartbroke brims over with each character’s attempt to salvage grace where they can find it. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Bieker brilliantly illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun.Winner of the California Book Award
NPR, A Best Book of the Year
The New York Times, A Best California Book of the Year
Library Journal, A Best Book of the Year
Bustle, A Most Anticipated Book of the Month
The Millions, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
Book Riot, A Must Read Story Collection

A bold, uncanny ode to California’s Central Valley . . . Bieker offers an unsentimental view of the hardscrabble lives of the white working cll3#