I really enjoyed this book. There are always questions about the advantages and disadvantages of first person narrators, but here the women who speak seem, paradoxically, so matter of fact and forceful that it’s difficult to believe anyone could tell their stories better. Some of their remarkable power is that the stories alternate between embodying epiphanies and valedictions—sometimes a quick goodbye, but always with an authenticity that convinces the longer it lingers. They’ll stay in your mind.”
—Ann Beattie
“Save Me, Stranger is a book of parables—supernal and sinister. Disturbing but comforting. Read these stories with a buddy, because someone will have to scrape you off the floor.”
—Louise Erdrich
“In this far-ranging and visionary collection, Krouse extends the reach of what stories can do, delivering a dozen little masterpieces of heart and longing and surprise. Save Me, Stranger is at once a treatise on tender moments and a symphony of storytelling.”
—Adam Johnson
“The protagonists at the heart of this collection seem to hang, fingers clinging, on a high precipice, while the reader stands above in judgment and care, both at once...As we read their stories, it becomes clear that redemption might yet be in reach, if only someone would reach down and offer a hand. In our lonesome, suspicious times, Save Me, Stranger made me feel that there’s hope yet for our wretched souls. I’ll be thinking about these stories for a long time.”
—Vauhini Vara
“It is always a thrill to encounter a new and wildly capable imagination. Each story here is fully-realized and also a portal into a new landscape, and I read with appetite, marveling at Krouse’s range and storytelling chops.”
—Aimee Bender