Cécile Barlier

Cécile Barlier was born in France and received her master’s degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris. For over two decades, she has lived in the United States, raising two daughters and working alongside her husband Pierre as an entrepreneur. She lives in Lafayette, California. Three of her short stories—“A Gypsy’s Book of Revelation,” “Forgetting,” and “M.R.I”—have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. “Forgetting” was featured in Epiphany’s The Writers Studio at 30 anthology. Barlier won the 2019 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. Barlier’s other work has been widely featured (or is forthcoming) in a variety of literary magazines, including Amarillo Bay, Valparaiso Fiction Review, Cerise Press, and Delmarva Review.


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A Gypsy’s Book of Revelation

Cécile Barlier

Publication Date: April 6, 2021

$15.95 Tradepaper

ISBN: 9781888996876

Description:

A Gypsy’s Book of Revelation is a collection of stories with an astonishing range of styles and subject matters. A woman visits her cremation from inside the body of her dead self, a competitive couple trains as free-divers, a mother leaves her son behind on top of a mountain, a very pregnant woman experiences a peculiar relationship with a priest-to-be: these stories are full of surprising experimentation that strikes a deeply compelling balance between the real and the bizarre. Embodying unusual premises and worlds, these stories are also fearlessly nontraditional in their structure and approach. These voices haunt, tease, and dare while never providing fully fledged answers. Each story is its own unique thing, a small but profound nod to the human condition.

ADVANCE PRAISE

“This collection has an astonishing range of styles and subject matters—it seems that there’s no character or situation the author is afraid to explore, and the stories are full of surprising experimentation and a balance between realism and the weird that I found deeply compelling. Readers who, like me, are fans of Jim Shepard and Carmen Maria Machado will find much to admire here: like Shepard, these stories vividly embody surprising and unusual premises and worlds; like Machado, they are fearlessly nontraditional in their structure and approach. But they are also their own unique thing, sui generis, each story imbued with authority and wisdom. I’m super excited about this author’s future work.”—Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

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