Near Flesh

Katherine Dunn
Paperback, 272 pages
October 13, 2026

Preorder Available October 13, 2026

$19.00

Description

A woman invests in a series of sex robots to get herself off and comes to terms with the limitations—and real threat—of automated companionship. A young student pursues an affair with an older man, the poet in residence at the university where she studies writing, and weighs the benefits and costs of their arrangement. A mother moves to a farm with her family and battles the violence simmering beneath her skin.

Near Flesh is the first and only collection of short fiction by the late Katherine Dunn, the beloved author of the bestselling novel Geek Love. These nineteen stories are attuned to the spit and grit of tough living. They pulse with yearning for a more prosperous life, for sexual satisfaction, for escape from abusive husbands and the disappointments of convention. A better life, for these mostly female protagonists, seems always just out of reach. In Near Flesh, Dunn explores the struggles of women to live on their own terms, and the desire to relish—rather than quash—what makes a person wholly singular and vibrantly alive.

Format: Trade Paperback

Author: Katherine Dunn

Publisher: Picador

Pub Date: October 13, 2026

Category: Fiction / Short Stories (single author)

ISBN: 9781250448231

Additional information

Weight 1 lbs
Dimensions 8.25 × 5.38 in