From Lydia Millet-"the American writer with the funniest wisest grasp on how we fool
ourselves" ( Chicago Tribune )-comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists
follows a group of families couples and loners in their collisions confessions and
conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns beauty salons tech-bro
mansions assisted-living facilities big-box stores gastropubs college campuses and
medieval role-playing festivals. The various "-ists" who people these linked stories-from
futurists to insurrectionists to cosmetologists-include a professor who's morbidly fixated on
an old friend's Instagram account a woman convinced that her bright young son-in-law is
watching geriatric porn a bodybuilder who lives an incel's fantasy life a couple who surveil
the neighbors after finding obscene notes in their mailbox a pretentious academic accused of
plagiarism and a suburban ex-marathoner dad obsessed with hosting refugees in a tiny house in
his backyard.
