A BOOK OF THE YEAR choice in the New Yorker Washington Post and Electric Lit Deeply uncanny
and hauntingly resonant - strange stories about modern America for fans of George Saunders
Mariana Enriquez and Shirley Jackson 'One of 2024's superlative debuts - t his writer's got
talent to burn' Washington Post 'These stories will change you' Jonathan Safran Foer A
young family is trapped in a time loop in an idyllic holiday cabin. A middle-aged man becomes
convinced that his disappointing son is an impostor. Two brothers take a midnight ride in a
golf cart and run into trouble. The elderly tour guide at an alien contact site loses control
of his guests. Meanwhile all around them America is dissolving fragmenting distorting
beyond recognition. The antiheroes of Beautiful Days are chronic underachievers: men lost in
their own lives and plagued by loneliness self-doubt suppressed rage. When the worst happens
they take to the road - crossing the wilderness in stolen cars riding trains to the end of the
line or cruising along ruined monorails as the skyline burns. Zach Williams' stories are
haunted by the ghosts of America - its lost illusions its dark aspirations its boundless
disquieting potential. They leak through the fabric of reality and out into the void beyond.
And they reach ever-hopeful toward a moment of connection that might pull a body back from
the brink.
