Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry

A collection of short stories where the humour runs dark and the slipstream bubbles up.

In these 14 tales, you will meet a pair of office workers who wager that they can drive a too-perfect co-worker over the edge, a barroom prophet who can predict more than just rain, a modern-day yojimbo grieving the loss of his wife and trying to not lose his nephew, and a man who receives some important advice from a pound of butter. Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry is inhabited with characters that are obsessed, confused, and sometimes just plain miffed. In the title story, a man seeks revenge on a neighbour whose butt-ugly mutt has a dalliance with his purebred Bichon. In Cappy, a man hears a name in a dream and ends up sipping mint juleps in the backyard with one of the pioneers of LSD. In Broomstick Limbo, a trio of young boys play a game a limbo with a unfortunate end. In Subject:time, a pair of siblings wonder why time is moving in opposite ways for the two of them.

If you’ve read Correction Line, you will recognize Craig Terlson’s sharp dialogue and crafted storytelling—imagine if Raymond Carver called up George Saunders and Joe Lansdale, and they all went drinking with Neil Gaiman.