Aliens & Other Stories

The characters in Kathleen Wheaton's linked stories are exiles-from their native countries, their families, their objects of desire. Political refugees from Argentina's "dirty war," survivors of a Cuban shipwreck and of Franco's Spain all navigate life as foreigners, whether in Madrid, Buenos Aires or suburban Washington, D.C. With wry, nuanced compassion, Wheaton follows these resilient people as they reconcile the absurdities of contemporary life with a legacy of dislocation, loss and longing.

******Kathleen's collection of stories won the Washington Writers' Publishing House 2013 prize for fiction.

“Kathleen Wheaton’s characters are exiles: from their nations, their native families, their objects of desire. These ‘ruined specimens,’ as one character calls them, are almost always rescued – if not by circumstance, then by Wheaton’s compassionate, penetrating prose. These cleverly interlinked stories are a homeland of their own.”
– Michael Lowenthal, author of “Charity Girl” and “The Paternity Test”

“In ‘Aliens and Other Stories,’ Kathleen Wheaton captures the disparate narratives of immigrants adrift in middle-class America – from the displaced and underemployed to the haunted legacy of Argentina’s desaparecidos. She imbues these stories with warmth and nuance and – perhaps most remarkably of all – with humor.”
– Susan Coll, author of “Acceptance” and “Beach Week”

“With a keen eye and a rich and precise prose, Kathleen Wheaton embarks on a journey into the hearts and minds of exiles and expatriates. From the alienated and somber atmosphere of Argentina’s ‘dirty war’ to Madrid and Washington D.C., her characters are castaways, trying to find meaning in a reality that seems suspended in a moral vacuum. ‘Aliens and Other Stories’ is a remarkable first book.”
– Mario Diament, former editor of La Opinion, author of “Lost Tango” and “Martin Eidan”

“What a pleasure it is to read Kathleen Wheaton’s collection of short stories, all of which expose with knife-like clarity the all-too-human flesh of contemporary life. Wheaton connects her characters to the world beyond the front door and the community while at the same time, and often with a sweet touch of humor, invites us into the heart of the family. Wheaton reveals the worst and the best of people unsure but still trying.”
– Anne Bernays, author of “New York in the Fifties” and “The Man on the Third Floor”

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