Were In Trouble

"Uncanny, clear-eyed . . . [Coake] is wildly engaging as he explores one theme—love in the face of harrowing death (or near-death)—from seemingly every angle. A-."—Entertainment Weekly

From a wife waiting for news of her husband's latest death-defying climb to a sheriff thrown into turmoil after his close friend enacts a horrifying murder-suicide, Christopher Coakes unforgettable characters experience love staring in the face of death. As their love darkens and perseveres, it elicits either the best or the worst in them. With the complexity, depth, and narrative drive of a novel, Coakes extraordinary debut collection makes us feel the truth of his imperiled characters' lives and transforms it into cathartic art. Were in Trouble is at once suspenseful, empathic, and almost unbearably moving.

"Coake has . . . done something both alarming and amazing: He has taken his proximity to mortality's horrors, mined them for their truest nature, married them to a sure hand for storytelling and presented us all with a debut book of stories, We're in Trouble, that is both beautiful in its elegance and merciless in its intensity."--Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

"I've read more than a thousand stories a year for the past eight years and nothing—nothing—has surpassed the work of Mr. Coake. You will be stunned, you will have tears in your eyes, and you will remember these stories for the rest of your life."—Otto Penzler, The Best American Mystery Stories

Christopher Coake lives in Reno, where he teaches creative writing at the University of Nevada.

"Uncanny, clear-eyed....[Coake] is wildly engaging as he explores one theme — love in the face of harrowing death (or near-death) — from seemingly every angle. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly

"Sometimes, when you're reading these stories, you forget to breathe....Beautifully written." Nick Hornby

"Gripping reading from a talented newcomer." Booklist

"Both beautiful in its elegance and merciless in its intensity....For such dark material, Coake's stories are elegant and redolent of an aching form of humanity." Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Surely one of the bleakest short-story collections in recent memory....Coake's stories are not the uneven offerings of most debut collections of fiction, and they are not clumsy efforts to horrify. Expertly crafted and edited to the bone, they fill us with fear of a very human kind." Baltimore Sun

Each of the seven stories in this extraordinary debut collection dramatizes a deep love staring at the face of death — an encounter that elicits either the best or the worst in these vividly drawn characters. In "We're in Trouble," a woman is asked to end her dying husband's suffering. In "Abandon," a troubled young man must risk jail to do right by the only woman he has ever loved. And "In the Event" shows a young musician's all-night vigil after his best friends' sudden deaths leave him the guardian of their three-year-old son.

Suspenseful and empathic, these dramatically constructed stories show love darkening and persevering as it is tried by the cold reality of death. From a wife waiting for news of her husband's latest death-defying climb, to a sheriff thrown into turmoil after his close friend enacts a horrifying murder-suicide, Coake makes us feel the truth of his characters' lives and transforms it into cathartic art.

This book begins with "We're in Trouble," a suite of three stories that introduces its common theme: love darkening and persevering as it is tried by the cold fact of death. And in the vivid stories that follow, as Coake's unforgettable characters experience love staring at the face of death, it elicits either the best or the worst in them. From a wife waiting for news of her husband's latest death-defying climb to a sheriff thrown into turmoil after his close friend enacts a horrifying murder-suicide, Coake makes us feel the truth of his imperiled characters' lives and transforms it into cathartic art.

With the complexity, depth, and narrative drive of a novel, this extraordinary debut collection is at once suspenseful, empathic, and almost unbearably moving.

Christopher Coake lives in Reno, where he teaches creative writing at the University of Nevada.

We're in Trouble 1

Cross Country 31

Solos 61

In the Event 107

A Single Awe 143

Abandon 175

All Through the House 245