Description
A beloved high school athlete is dead. An only child tries to navigate her parent’s decaying relationship after a stillborn sibling. A young couple is forced to face the power of nature, as well as their disintegrating relationship. A privileged, academically gifted college freshman dreads going to visit her boyfriend’s working-class family over spring break. These short stories examine the dark currents of truth below the shifting surface of small-town life in Upstate New York to mine the murkier and complex webs of half-truths, strained interpersonal relationships, and emotional quicksand that threaten to consume and destroy anyone who dares look too close. In his debut solo short story collection, First Aid for Choking Victims, author Matthew Zanoni Müller highlights the cracks in the smiles of well-meaning neighbors, picks at the scabs of the hidden wounds in that “perfect family,” and exposes the ugliest parts of ourselves by reflecting them back to us through his complex and emotionally nuanced characters. Forging into the deep intricacies of their inner lives, Müller excavates his characters’ worldviews in bracing detail. A hidden camcorder in a kid’s jacket, the secret dance of a jellyfish, a terrifying ball of static light. Rich in detail and sumptuous atmosphere, Müller evokes the small moments – the changes of light and shadow in a character’s mind, the tectonic shifts and rumblings that break apart an inner world. Taut, bracing, these stories follow characters in regret, grief, religious turbulence, and inner questioning.