Synopses & Reviews
Borrowing from Peggy Lee,
Is That All There Is? transforms the famed song’s fatalistic exuberance into a slim volume of minimalist and genre-blending narratives. From a vacation with friends to a retreat with strangers, danger lurks around every corner.
Spanning generations and continents, interweaving cursed travelers with prophetic artists, this book is a showcase of the luckless and lovelorn, the criminal and damned.
Review
“The language here is so firm and so real, but the stories themselves are a wonder. Each reads, at times, like evidence of something beyond its own borders, a great puzzle comprised of lives that morph and cross and sing with mystery. Think Christie, in a Donald Barthelme way. In truth, I’ve never read a collection that works exactly like this one does. I’ve asked to be put at the top of the forthcoming list of its many admirers.” Scott Garson, author of Is That You, John Wayne?
Review
“Sinister, stylish, and sexy, this collection weaves together the complex lives of women and the dangers they face across generations, from a cultlike 1970s mindfulness retreat interrupted by death, to a menacing near-future corporation that makes apologies for its clients, and the greatest danger of all: marriage.” Katie M. Flynn, author of The Companions
About the Author
Marcelle Heath is the author of a short story collection, Is That All There Is? (Awst Press, 2022). Her work has appeared in Fractured Literary, Kenyon Review, Little Fiction, matchbook, Split Lip, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and other journals. She curates Apparel for Authors, an interview series on writing, clothing, and the public sphere.