A History of Heartache

"In this haunting debut, renowned journalist Patrick Strickland brings his exacting reportorial eye and powerful, pared-down prose to bear on matters of the heart. The stories are perfectly constructed and taut as a drum, and they echo with the ache of the unspoken, the unnamed, the unsaid. It's the rare writer who is capable of drawing lives this fully realized and characters this deeply felt in just a few well-chosen strokes, but Strickland can and does, creating a collection that is all the more resonant and nuanced for its restraint. Easily the best collection of short fiction I've read in years, A History of Heartache marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction."  —Marya Hornbacher, New York Times bestselling author of Wasted

"Strickland writes with economy, muscle, and beauty, and these stories can both break and warm your heart at the same time. These are outcasts, searchers, lovers, sinners, all grasping to find a place in the sometimes hostile and often lonely world. A History of Heartache is a collection of stories you do not want to miss." — Michael Farris Smith, author of Nick

"Meet Strickland’s hard-boiled, broken, and downtrodden — North America’s lost. Read their stories of motel graveyard shifts, single parenting, and drinking. Just know your heart will break." - Adrianne Kalfopoulo, author of A History of Too Much