«The Baltimore Atrocities» by John Dermot Woods

Named one of Electric Literature 25 Best Novels of 2014, here is “a darkly funny romp through some collective nightmare version of Baltimore” (AskMen.com).The Baltimore Atrocities is a mordant, deadpan collection of more than one hundred murders, betrayals, heartbreaks, suicides, and bureaucratic snafus—each with a half-page illustration by the author—that tells the story of a couple who spends a year in Baltimore in search of their respective siblings, who were abducted decades earlier as young children.“Like a lost season of The Wire directed by Richard Linklater, The Baltimore Atrocities beguiles, bemuses, often horrifies, and never fails to impress.” —Justin Taylor, author of Flings“This is a book that breaks boundaries on every page. It will make you squirm in your seat and laugh nervously. It will leave you lingering on a single page for minutes at a time, the wheels in your head turning. Far from atrocious, The Baltimore Atrocities is a fresh read charged with the promise of never letting you go.” —Foxing Quarterly“Poignant and unsettling, and much like a good short story collection these tales resonate long after the book is closed.” —Largehearted Boy“An accomplished artist and writer, in addition to being an entertaining and often an electrifying one. John Woods does something very original in his combining of the arts in this collection, and my hat’s off to him in his two-hat achievement.” —Stephen Dixon