I Know You Know Who I Am: Stories

I Know You Know Who I Am: Stories

AN ELLE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AN O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE MUST-READ LGBTQ BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ELECTRIC LIT BEST SHORT STORY COLLECTION OF THE YEAR A GRINDR QUEER BOOK OF THE YEAR A THE ADVOCATE LGBT+ Book You Absolutely Need to Read "Riveting …  Every lie reveals itself so exquisitely that the parallels become an added pleasure, as soon as we uncover the ways they diverge ."  — New York Times Book Review "Dazzling. Here is a confident, psychologically astute new writer with a bold new vision."  — Garrard Conley,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Boy Erased Throughout this striking debut collection we meet characters who have lied, who have sometimes created elaborate falsehoods, and who now must cope with the way that those deceptions eat at the very fabric of their lives and relationships. In the title story, the narrator, desperate to save a love affair on the rocks, hires an actor to play a friend he invented in order to seem less lonely, after his boyfriend catches on to his compulsion for lying and demands to know this friend is real; in "Aim for the Heart," a man's lies about a hunting habit leave him with an unexpected deer carcass and the need to parse unsettling high school memories; in "Rorschach," a theater producer runs a show in which death row inmates are crucified in an on-stage rendering of the New Testament, while being haunted daily by an unrequited love and nightly by ghosts of his own creation. In I Know You Know Who I Am , Kispert deftly explores deception and performance, the uneasiness of reconciling a queer identity with the wider world, and creates a sympathetic, often darkly humorous, portrait of characters searching for paths to intimacy. "[A] wryly scathing debut."  — O, The Oprah Magazine "In this debut collection, Peter Kispert takes a clever premise—stories about liars—and spins an extraordinary tapestry... In stories that are by turns blackly comic, speculative, romantic, and wistful, Kispert toys with the ideas of personal truth, deception (of self and other), and lies from so many angles that, taken as a whole, the collection wows with its insight, daring, and breadth of talent." —Elle.com, “12 Best Books of 2020 So Far”  "Kispert's stories have remarkable range, but are all anchored by lithe and lucid prose compelling the reader to become complicit in these very human dramas.”  —OprahMag.com "Striking… [ I Know You Know Who I Am is] about how one slips into dishonesty in relationships and in coming to terms with oneself, the stories reveal through these lies, the truth about us all."  — Salon "Piercing... this lively and provocative work crisply reflects the challenges of modern love."  — Publishers Weekly "Kispert blends sharp characterization with intriguing premises throughout this memorable collection."  — Kirkus (starred) "Kispert’s short fiction is a performative lie that reveals truth to readers in subtle, surprising ways that literary fiction lovers will devour... [these] stories dig deep, and they’re far from forgettable."  — Booklist (starred) "Kispert runs the gamut, oscillating between dystopic horror and giving the reader André Aciman-levels of feels, yet each story is connected — a powerful two-in-one tool that is transparent as much as it is reflective."  — PAPER Magazine   "In his debut story collection, Peter Kispert exhibits a cool, sharp style and a finely attuned ear for spare-but-telling dialogue... Might there be a flash of your own reflection in these stories’ glimmer and sting?" — Passport Magazine   " I Know You Know Who I Am presents a kaleidoscope of deception... They seem like perfect stories for this interior moment: a deep dive into what motivates the myths individuals create and what they reveal about the queer experience and the human condition."  — Fiction Writers Review   "Right from the first line, Peter Kispert’s fiction grabs your interest and refuses to let go... Kispert impressively crafts well-developed, affecting stories that are full of depth and sharp prose. Readers will find themselves savoring each one."  — The Writer Magazine   "In spite of these characters’ indubitable violations of moral conduct, I couldn’t help but fall in love. The tenderness with which Kispert portrays the liars left me rooting for them, hoping against all hope that they wouldn’t destroy themselves, that this time they would get things right."  — F(r)iction  "This debut collection has a wisdom and a tapestry of language far beyond the author's years. Loosely linked unreliable narrators remind us that we might find religion in the most unlikely places — such as the space between a truth and a lie.”  —Jodi Picoult, #1  New York Times  bestselling author of  A Spark of Light  and  Small Great Things "Engrossing, unsettling, full of characters in search of their place in the world,  I Know You Know Who I Am  reminds me in the best possible way of the debut collections of Mary Gaitskill and Adam Haslett