About Uncle

A freaky tale of isolation and the porous membranes between us, Rebecca Gislers slim novelrenders a collapsing world with equal parts aversion, fascination, and tendernessfor readers of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sayaka Murata.At a time when shed rather be making her own way in the world, an unnamed young woman finds herself moving to a small town at the seaside to care for her uncle. Hes a disabled veteran with questionable habits, prone to drinking, gorging, and hoardingnot to mention the occasional excursion down into the plumbing, where he might disappear for days at a time. When the world begins to shut down, Uncle and his niece are forced even closer still. She knows his every moveevery bathroom break he takes, every pill he swallowsand she finds herself relying on this man who is the last one person occupying an empty world with her. But then Uncles health takes a final turn for the worse, hes sent to a hospital that cares for cats, dogs, and Uncles, and any way for her to make sense of this eerie new reality, and her place in it, falls apart.Poet-novelist Rebecca Gislers debut novel, set against our increasingly disjointed world, welcomes readers into a home of shut-ins as cozy as it is claustrophobic. Gislers bright, winding prose, masterfully translated from French by Jordan Stump, offers a rare witness to the complex ways in which we order our lives, for better or worse, inside and out.