Magic Can't Save Us

""If Ukelele Ike and Hans Christian Andersen had babies, one of them could probably write imaginative, funny, playful stories, where otherworldly creatures often infiltrate the commonplace to create their own brand of magic, such as these."" - Fernando A. Flores, author of Brother Brontë and Tears of the Trufflepig ""With the fabulist hand of Aimee Bender and Karen Russell and the humor and irreverence of Steve Almond, Denslow masterfully juggles crumbling relationships and beings of myth in a whirlwind of awkward silences, deceit, and failure to love. Whether these broken characters seek out magic or if magic seeks them, Denslow has proven himself to be a master of holding the unreal to our imperfect hearts, proving that no magic is ever enough to deliver happiness. A tragic, humorous, and wonderfully magical collection from a writer that you should be watching. - Sequoia Nagamatsu, Bestselling Author of How High We Go in the Dark ""You need to read this wry collection that crackles with funny dialogue and page-turning action. Josh Denslow's writing will disturb and dazzle you. Be prepared to laugh and have your imagination expanded."" - Ursula Villarreal-Moura, author of Like Happiness ""We all have writers we love, those whose work speaks to us, makes us happy, and serves as a gut punch. Sometimes these writers create something new, and we think, wow, I've always enjoyed their insight into relationships, and their use of wordplay and magical realism, and yet this new thing is bigger, better, more moving. Which is exactly what I felt as I read Josh Denslow's beautiful new collection Magic Can't Save Us. He made a leap, and as someone who already loves his writing, I'm happy that with this book everyone else will learn what I already know, Josh's writing is magical."" - Ben Tanzer, author of After Hours: Scorsese, Grief and the Grammar of Cinema, The Missing & UPSTATE