House Gone Quiet: Stories

by Kelsey Norris, Kimberly Woods (Read by), Jade Wheeler (Read by), James Fouhey (Read by), Machelle Williams (Read by)

Overview

A genre-bending debut story collection about the bonds and bounds of community and what it means to call a place home, perfect for fans of Friday Black and Her Body and Other Parties.

A group of women contemplate violence after they’re sent into foreign territory to make husbands of the enemy. A support network of traumatized joggers meets to discuss the bodies they’ve found on their runs. And a town replaces its Confederate monument with a rotating cast of local residents. Slippery but muscular, sly but electric, this stunning debut collection moves from horror to magical realism to satire with total authority. In these stories, characters build and remake their sense of home, be it with one another or within themselves.

As in the very best collections, each of these stories is a world all its own, with a novel’s emotional heft and a poem’s laser focus on the most achingly resonant details of its characters’ lives. Captivating from start to finish, House Gone Quiet announces the arrival of a thrilling literary talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797162294
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kelsey Norris is a writer and editor from Alabama. She earned an MFA from Vanderbilt University and has worked as a teacher in rural Namibia, a school librarian, and a bookseller. Her work has been published in Kenyon Review, Black Warrior Review, and Oxford American, among others. She is currently based in Washington, DC. Find more at KelseyNorris.com.

Jade Wheeler is an actor of the screen, stage, and booth. She has recorded nonfiction, self-help, and educational material as well as fiction, fantasy, and YA.

James Fouhey is an actor and narrator living in New York City. He received classical training at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He has recorded more than forty audiobooks across a variety of genres, including science fiction, romance, young adult fiction, and children’s fiction.

Machelle Williams has crafted an easy storytelling style from twenty-three years as a corporate trainer and keynote diversity speaker. Since 2016 she has successfully produced over twenty-eight audiobook projects.

Machelle's voice is nuanced, ranging from soft and soothing to dramatic and smoky. She specializes in mysteries and thrillers; her bespoke repertoire also includes cozy mysteries and nonfiction, as well as titles in the religious, urban, and noire genres. When you need a narrator to take your listener to the edge of their seat and their breath away, trust the telling to Machelle.

Kimberly Woods is an actress and producer, known for Crazed, Heartprints, and Cartoon Hook-Ups.

Editorial Reviews

A writer to watch if there ever was one.”

New York Times bestselling author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

08/21/2023

Norris’s skillful debut collection evokes an atmosphere of foreboding across a wide variety of situations. In “The Sound of Women Waiting,” set in an unnamed war-torn country and made eerie by its nondescript location, narrator Satya struggles to survive in enemy territory, where she and other imprisoned women are forced into marriages with local men, while other captives descend into thievery and murder. The frothy “Air Shifts” revolves around a call-in show called The Talk with Tabitha, where DJs Jack and Bubba toss out cavalier advice and one-liners. When one caller suspects her husband is having an affair with the mother of their son’s T-ball teammate, Bubba responds, “Catfight at the T-ball field!” After a longtime caller asks for sex advice, host Tabitha blithely declares, “You’re my family. We’re all in this together,” without addressing the problem. The heroine of the standout story “Go Way Back” drives across several states with her boyfriend Carter and into the increasingly scary and unfamiliar domain of his parents. Though the reader will usually sense where Norris is headed, the details are spot on. This bears the mark of an assured writer. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Norris’s ruminative characters drift through their communities and lives like ghosts, free to roam and ponder their haunts yet fixed in space... The stories largely center on collectives. Women displaced by war, families, townspeople, radio station listeners and employees all take turns in the book’s spotlight, brought to life with rhythmic prose that channels the lyricism and end-stops of poetry."—New York Times Book Review

“House Gone Quiet chronicles characters at a turning point between upheaval and the path of reconciliation.... Norris is skillful and generous in allowing the reader to be detective as well as an implicit part of the story...this collection resonates most for the questions it leaves unanswered.”—Chapter 16

"Kelsey Norris writes about place with a unique perspective throughout the collection, which gives each story a truly lived-in experience. She dazzles across genre and offers up a delicious bite for all kinds of readers."—Debutiful

"Every story presents thought-provoking questions about what makes a community hold strong and, conversely, what causes its individual members to break. Read, and find your own tipping point."—Chicago Review of Books

"Ranging from social commentary ripe with sardonic wit to the dreamy surrealism of bioluminescent algae, Norris’s stories are indeed individually contained and yet connected, each pointing its unique lens toward ideas of community and belonging...This debut collection is approachable and entertaining, using the power of storytelling to explore and then to connect new perspectives on familiar situations."—Southern Review of Books

“The windows in the House Gone Quiet offer a glimpse into communities drawn together in strange times...Norris presents a wide cast of characters in their own worlds, each overflowing with a sense of eeriness and surrealism...With its moments of dark humor, this genre-defying debut is perfect for readers of Margaret Atwood and Carmen Maria Machado.”—Booklist

"A vivacious collection of ten short stories... The sheer variety of genres, settings, and subjects means that the collection resembles a tasting menu—a showcase of the range of this debut writer... Perfect for fans of Danielle Evans."—Shelf Awareness

"Norris’s skillful debut collection evokes an atmosphere of foreboding across a wide variety of situations... [House Gone Quiet] bears the mark of an assured writer."—Publisher's Weekly

"Imaginative, dark, and haunting... These ten magnetic stories range from otherworldly to intimate."—Kirkus

"First-rate, precise, and perceptive short stories full of voices, feeling, and far-ranging knowledge of the world: Kelsey Norris’s exciting first collection is a book I’ve been waiting to read for some time."—Lorrie Moore, author of I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home

"From searing satire to haunting magical realism, Kelsey Norris's carefully and beautifully crafted tales left me laughing, gasping, and completely enthralled. An inventive, clever, and beguiling collection."—Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“Kelsey Norris's work is tender, bold and beautiful whether she is working in the surreal or creating power in the familiar. She has all the tools a writer needs and more importantly, she is not afraid to use them all to be more than one thing... A writer to watch if there ever was one.”
—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars

"A playful, far-ranging, and unruly collection from a writer whose keen eye and joy in language leap out on every page."—C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey

"House Gone Quiet is small but mighty. The stories in this collection are astonishing jewels; you turn them over in your hands, dazzled by the many glints and facets. Kelsey Norris is a wonder on the page, surprising and graceful, adept at seamlessly moving the reader through the marvelous worlds she's created. Tense, moving, and hilarious at turns—House Gone Quiet is an absolute delight. I loved every second of it."—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

From the Publisher

12/22/2023

DEBUT Norris debuts with an eclectic collection of short stories, with settings that range from war-torn countries to small Southern American towns to salt basins in the middle of a drought-ridden desert. Many of the stories explore how big-picture issues like sexism and racism affect interpersonal relationships. This is sometimes handled more somberly, such as in "Go Way Back," the closing story, which tells the journey of a biracial college girl visiting her white boyfriend's family for the first time and, despite their welcoming attitudes, being unable to shake the present-day and historical anti-Black racism that surrounds their relationship. All of the stories focus on deep, introspective themes, but they are not without humor, such as in "Such Great Height and Consequence," which focuses on the residents of a small town who start taking turns using the stone pedestal left behind when the statue of a Confederate general is removed; citizen's activities on the pedestal include public sunbathing, gossip sessions, and even a much-needed nap. VERDICT Linked by their surreal nature and strong sense of place, the works in Norris'ss book include both well-developed characters and strong settings. Recommended for most collections.—Jennifer Renken

Library Journal

2023-07-26
A debut collection of imaginative, dark, and haunting stories tied loosely to themes of community, violence, and belonging.

These 10 magnetic stories range from otherworldly to intimate, dealing with a trio of depressive radio hosts, a kooky relative hoarding miniature dolls, and a group of women forced to marry enemy soldiers. Many stories take clear inspiration from the real world, such as in “Decency Rule,” when a power-hungry politician uses vulgarity and clownish humor to improve the lives of “people who were exactly like him.” But these stories spin familiar premises toward the absurd and comic. In “Such Great Height and Consequence,” a town reckons with the removal of a Confederate monument. Shenanigans ensue when the empty platform becomes a space for citizens to stand, sunbathe, practice violin, and spill secrets. Many of Norris’ stories find moments of stunning beauty in bleak and grizzly events. In “Certain Truths and Miracles,” a boy swallows mouthfuls of twinkling, poisonous plankton that will eventually kill him, but for a moment transform him into “a shimmering conduit of the sea’s bright light.” Often narrated by an omniscient “we” and usually featuring a cast of characters rather than an individual narrator, these stories build a lush sense of place through a chorus of voices. While Norris’ lyric prose often creates a thorough and detailed environment, several stories fizzle out, missing the propulsion of a narrative arc, character development, or plot movement. They occasionally struggle to build momentum beyond elegiac and clever descriptions.

Moments of striking prose, sudden humor, and sharp analysis of social groups shine in this uneven collection.

Kirkus Reviews