In the Exile Zone
George Rabasa's much anticipated new story collection, In the Exile Zone, is a cross-continental exploration of connection, dislocation, and the human impulse to belong.nThe stories are a reminder that we're all in the exile zone, as immigrants and transitory souls in love and loss.
In these stories, a shaman's egg acts as a divorce arbitrator, a tour guide holds visitors hostage in New York's most unique cemetery, the boyhood friend of a monstrous Latin American dictator tries to set the record straight, a teenage girl loses her mother in Cancun, a high-powered career couple spies on their Mexican nanny, the wrestler El Santo is unmasked. The stories are by turns funny, frightening, speculative, haunting, and provocative.
"Rabasa is known as a master storyteller... 'In the Exile Zone' is scary and humorous, sometimes strange, with fully realized characters." –Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
"George Rabasa's stories take us on pilgrimages, crossing borders and boundaries to glimpse nannie-cam style into human nature. The routes are full of confidences, and many are secrets so restricted that characters want them hidden, even from themselves. Rabasa's scenes are alluring, and his characters are strong, one character strong enough to break free from the author's control and the fictional exile zone. That character is running free now among Rabasa's readers."–Cass Dalglish, author of Sweetgrass