Calamity and Other Stories

“Calamity tends to dwell on fraught relationships between the sexes. . . . Lovely [and] comic.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Superior fiction. Forget the flashy epiphany, the Kodak moment. Kalotay prefers the glancing accumulation of detail, which pays off to impressive effect.” —Los Angeles Times

“Kalotay’s collection builds force so quietly that when all the characters appear together in the final story you’re stunned—by how well it works and by how familiar these women now feel.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Contemplative, melancholy, yet not without humor, these are well-made fictions on a delicate scale that subtly demonstrate such truths as the persistence of character and the endurance of friendship.” —The Boston Globe

“These stories, simply told and insightful, make for entertaining reading.” —The Sunday Oklahoman

“Daphne Kalotay pursues the ongoing arc of her characters’ lives in subtle, languid, sometimes oblique ways.” —The Improper Bostonian

“Kalotay’s stories offer an intimate glimpse at . . . the absurdities and delights of an ordinary life.” —The Virginian-Pilot

“[A] delicately graceful debut. . . . Capturing her characters at different stages in their lives, Kalotay artfully crafts her book around their metamorphoses, both big and small.” —Publishers Weekly

“Compassion is at the heart of Kalotay’s polished stories, as are a subtle sense of humor and appreciation for the complexities of human emotion.” —Booklist