Lost Animal Club (Nunatak First Fiction Series Book 44)

Runner-up in the Prose Fiction category at the 2016 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada! In his debut story collection, Kevin A. Couture creates a world where the veneer of humanness stretches thin and often cracks as a menagerie of burdened characters reveal their beast-like traits. In his desperate survival plan, a pre-teen "rescues" dogs in order to sell them back to their well-off owners; a marathon pacesetter reflects on the pace she sets both on and off the race route, as she navigates her imperfect marriage; a man confronts his drive for alcohol and the deadly and isolating consequences that leave him to risk his last scrap of control; and two kids, for different reasons, execute their plan to capture a bear cub. Lost Animal Club combines murky sensibilities with finely rendered, precise prose. The writing is gripping and honest, with metaphors and similes as startling as the harsh choices the characters make. Praise for Lost Animal Club "... executed with masterful control..." ~ Andrew MacDonald, Event "These stories stuck with me, so consuming that they infiltrated my dreams...." ~ Worn Pages and Ink Blog

Runner-up in the Prose Fiction category at the 2016 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada!

In his debut story collection, Kevin A. Couture creates a world where the veneer of humanness stretches thin and often cracks as a menagerie of burdened characters reveal their beast-like traits. In his desperate survival plan, a pre-teen “rescues” dogs in order to sell them back to their well-off owners; a marathon pacesetter reflects on the pace she sets both on and off the race route, as she navigates her imperfect marriage; a man confronts his drive for alcohol and the deadly and isolating consequences that leave him to risk his last scrap of control; and two kids, for different reasons, execute their plan to capture a bear cub.

Lost Animal Club combines murky sensibilities with finely rendered, precise prose. The writing is gripping and honest, with metaphors and similes as startling as the harsh choices the characters make.

Praise for Lost Animal Club

"... executed with masterful control..."
~ Andrew MacDonald, Event

"These stories stuck with me, so consuming that they infiltrated my dreams...."
~ Worn Pages and Ink Blog

In his debut story collection, Kevin A. Couture creates a world where the veneer of humanness stretches thin and often cracks, while burdened characters take on a variety of beast-like traits. In his desperate survival plan, a pre-teen "rescues" dogs in order to sell them back to their well-off owners. A hare-like marathon pacesetter reflects on the pace she sets, for others and for herself, both on and off the race route. A man confronts his drive for alcohol and the deadly and isolating consequences that leave him to risk his last scrap of control. And two kids, for different reasons, execute their plan to capture a bear cub. "Lost Animal Club" combines the murky sensibilities of Lynn Coady's "Hellgoing" with the finely rendered, precise prose of R.W. Gray's "Crisp" and Alexander McLeod's "Light Lifting." The writing is gripping, with metaphors and similes that are as startling as the harsh choices the characters make. In this debut short story collection, a cast of flawed characters reveal their animal-like traits in the harsh and startling choices they make A crisply written, thematically connected short story collection where characters possess the attributes of animals