Understories

Profound… with more to say on the human condition than most full books. …A remarkable collection, with pitch-perfect leaps of imagination.

— Minneapolis Star Tribune

Horvath doesn’t just tell a story, he gives readers a window into the hearts, minds and souls of his characters.

— Concord Monitor

This stunning collection revels in wordplay and inventiveness, and is one of the finest short fiction collections I have read all year.

— Largehearted Boy

Gets at the heart of our contemporary zeitgeist . . . Echoing the intricate metaphysical labyrinths of Borges, the philosophizing literary absurdity of David Foster Wallace, and the American-styled magical realism of Lethem, [Understories] is a deeply reflective, highly imaginative work.

— Tottenville Review

This is transformative prose at its best…. If you want an actual contemporary wordsmith who does not just tinker but thrives in the micro-worlds of Calvino and Borges, Walser and Perec, read Understories.

— HTML Giant

Touching and captivating . . . though I may have come to Understories for the weirdness, I stayed around for the quality of the writing and the emotions of the characters.

— InDigest

Weird and wonderful. . . . But for all th[e] playfulness—sometimes intellectual, sometimes bawdy—Understories is no rarefied exercise. Horvath rallies all the senses, smell and touch and taste and the others, in support of his interrogation of the universe, and his work is firmly grounded in the real world no matter how fantastic his musings.

— Bloom

As any great book, Understories confronts the making of fiction itself, intermittently directly confronting the mechanics of fabrication. . . . A major accomplishment by a major writer . . . full of writing as deeply aware of its antecedents as it is aware of the possibilities within, of, and about narrative.

— Big Other

This collection stand[s] out. There’s plenty of imagination [in Understories] but it’s rooted in recognizable and occasionally irrational emotions, a human quality that makes these stories endure. . . . Below the striking imagery, there’s abundant emotional depth to be found.

— Vol. 1 Brooklyn

A wild ride. [Understories] is a highly inventive short story collection that interweaves absurdity with a deep understanding of what makes people tick.

— Kenyon Review

Some books inspire, others seize. Understories seizes, shakes, then splits everything open.

— Punchnel’s

Horvath’s writing is so consistently fun, engaging, inventive, and imaginative while displaying such range between stories, that the reader will never grow bored.

— Small Press Book Review

Every echo, despite its resonance, is a kind of individual pocket. . . . As a fiction collection, then, Understories resonates not only on the stories as stories, but as an arrangement of individual parts. The buzz it gives off is the combined buzz of countless pockets, all charged with a life and surprise of their own.

— Collagist

These stories are triumphs of the imagination.

— Fantasy Literature

With plenty of humor and a good dose of poignancy, Understories is an excellent assortment for those who want something that blends traditional and speculative fiction together well.

— Midwest Book Review

Philosophical, sometimes whimsical, darkly funny, thought provoking, intense, evocative.

— Bookconscious

The big stories are magnificent—truly they are—but the little ones are gems as well; do not overlook the charming little bodegas and mom & pop shops while you are agape in wonder at the loftier architecture.

— A Just Recompense

Elegant . . . there is so much to appreciate in these intelligent and eloquently written, yet deceivingly understated stories.

— Books, Personally

Mightily fun . . . in turns vibrant and imaginative, eloquent and thoughtful, and lush and whimsical.

— Books Speak Volumes

Just enough off kilter to make one feel a touch dizzy. I loved this collection, and savored it over many months.

— Reading the Leaves

Horvath’s strength is absolutely concept: he imagines places and scenarios, and ‘what ifs’ himself into the most interesting premises.

— Brunette Bibliophile

Horvath knows how to write one kick-arse sentence after another.

— Bosco’s Going Down

Understories is fueled by a wonderfully inventive mind, but ultimately, it is a mind in service to the heart. Horvath’s attention is always squarely on us: who we are, who we have been, and how a great story can transform us.

— Matt Bell, author of Cataclysm Baby

Remarkable writing and remarkably rewarding reading: stories equally saturated in contemporary fact and transfactual acids. An atlas of canny and uncanny maps, mainly cityscapes, of the branching imagination and convoluted heart. Move over, Mercator and Google Earth: make way for Horvath’s haunting projections.

— Brian Boyd, author of Stalking Nabokov

Tim Horvath is a fluid, inventive writer who deftly interweaves the palpably real and the pyrotechnically fantastic. At once playful, deeply moving, and sharply funny, Understories satisfies the mind, the heart, and the gut.

— Kate Christensen, author of The Astral and The Great Man

Horvath seems to be channeling, all at once, Borges and Calvino and Kevin Brockmeier. And it all works.

— Rebecca Makkai, author of The Borrower

‘The Understory’ is a terrific reach through history from the pre- and post- Nazi era in Germany up to the present. . . . This is a wonderful story, a first-rate creation by a fine writer.

— Bill Henderson, president and editor of Pushcart Press, in his judge’s statement for the Raymond Carver Short Story Award

Tim Horvath is a wonderful writer. There’s a musicality to his prose. It’s evident that he enjoys the way words can sound on the page. His debut short story collection from Bellevue Literary Press reminds me a bit of Kevin Brockmeier, in the sense that both writers combine wordplay with speculative fiction.

— Michele Filgate, Community Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY) @ Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Horvath’s stories simultaneously stimulate the intellect while being fantastically imaginative. Contemporary urban life is examined through the looking glass, twisted slightly but still entirely recognizable and relatable. His images imprint, linger and the characters balance on the fine edge of what is real and what is imagined. This is memorable stuff.

— Stacie M. Williams, Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI)

To read Understories is to lose oneself on a spelunking expedition and stumble across a subterranean library sprouted from the Earth’s core. You’ll thank me for this one.

— Lydia, Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, MA)