Balancing wisdom and innocence, joy and forboding, each story in The Middle Stories leads us to surprising places and yields unexpected discoveries. A boy falls hopelessly in love with a monkey, a girl taunts a mermaid she keeps locked in a jar, and a man with a hat keeps apocalyptic thoughts at bay by devising a plan that he admits he won't stick to.

Published in Germany, Holland, France, Spain and the United States (by McSweeney's Books), Sheila Heti's debut marks the arrival of a writer of the first order.