Homesick For Another World

Moshfegh delights in exploring the seamy underside of life… Once encountered these characters are not easily forgotten.

Bookseller

An impressive study of human vulnerability and self-deception, through which the reader is guided by a cynical and darkly funny literary voice.

Nathan Smith, 1843 Magazine

Homesick for Another World showcases her mastery.

Time Magazine (Europe)

Razor-sharp short stories.

Zadie Smith

She can really write and has a pitch-black sense of humour.

Phil Baker, Sunday Times

Moshfegh’s writing is cinematic – vivid, immediate.

Gwendoline Riley, Times Literary Supplement

The characters in this collection are an unlovely bunch but make for an irresistible read… She writes terrific, attention-grabbing openings, and impactful last lines that don’t strain for a lapidary effect. Her damaged-girl deadpan snark is second to none, but she inhabits other character types with ease.

Christopher Taylor, Financial Times

A perfect showcase to Moshfegh’s brilliant and sui generis mind… brilliant as was Eileen, Moshfegh is near virtuosic in short story form, and newcomers to her work would do well to begin with this collection.

Michael Barron, Culture Trip

Moshfegh’s powerful, pristine prose shines a light on the dark side of these characters […] Her endings are never happy, but they often contain hope – which can be more convincing.

Christena Appleyard, Daily Mail

Moshfegh is consistently as sparky and gripping as she is inventive… She could become one of the most outstanding US writers of her generation.

Peter Carty

Dark, confident, prickling stories… [Moshfegh] has a wicked sort of command. Sampling her sentences is like touching a mildly electrified fence… Moshfegh is a penetrating observer of class and social mores… Do not come to these stories if your own guts are easily stirred.

Dwight Garner, New York Times

In her excellent first collection, Homesick for Another World, Ottessa Moshfegh… homes in on characters in states of weirdly dynamic paralysis, trapped between the pains of the past – bad childhoods, bad relationships, bad marriages – and dreams of the future… The stories… give us a sense of watching a fluent, deeply talented artist extend herself and take risks in her quest to master the form… Magnificent examples of how a short story can become expansive beyond expectation.

David Means, Gulf News

Provocative… Moshfegh presents characters who evince a flinching disgust for bodily functions and human intimacy. There’s no shortage of colourful sociopaths here… The stories draw a picture of an America that has lost its way, a bigoted, insular nation in the grip of an obesity epidemic... It’s a bracing, brilliant collection.

Jude Cook, Literary Review

Moshfegh’s style is a blend of nihilism and drollery that feels hyper-contemporary in its relentless sassiness, moving in the same breath from biting human observation to casual one liners about anal sex.

Tom Fleming, The Spectator

Efforts to contrive a sensationalist buzz around the author are not surprising. But Moshfegh needs no extra edge. Her works make enough of an impression, and they are exceptional: dark, violent and grotesquely intelligent. This new story collection, Homesick for Another World, is probably her most accomplished work to date, and it does not scrimp on obscenity, on esoteric rituals, or on harsh, uncomfortable realities… These stories paint a stunningly unique picture of contemporary disenchantment that goes beyond glassy-eyed millennial ennui.

Gill Moore, Totally Dublin

There’s something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh’s stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny… Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O’Connor, and Homesick for Another World is her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find… The dark energy surging through these stories is powerfully invigorating.

Victoria Sadler

Moshfegh’s stories are sharp, dark and often horribly funny.

James Marriott, The Times