Heartbroke by Bieker, Chelsea

Winner of the California Book Award

From the acclaimed author of Godshot and "a pitch-perfect ventriloquist of extraordinary talent and ferocity" (T Kira Madden) comes a defining book of Californian stories where everyone is seeking or sabotaging love

United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California's Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to recoup her own lost motherhood. A phone-sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny.

Heartbroke brims over with each character's attempt to salvage grace where they can find it. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Bieker brilliantly illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun.

Author: Chelsea Bieker
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 04/05/2022
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781646221271

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 11/01/2021 pg. 11
Publishers Weekly 01/31/2022
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2022
Booklist 02/15/2022 pg. 16
Library Journal 03/01/2022 pg. 133
Shelf Awareness 04/08/2022

About the Author
Chelsea Bieker is the author of the novel Godshot, which was a finalist for both the Oregon and California Book Awards, long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, named an NPR Best Book of the Year, and a Barnes & Noble Fiction Pick. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The Cut, McSweeney's, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and other publications. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award and a MacDowell Fellowship. Originally from California's Central Valley, she now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.