Last Day on Earth, Eric Puchner
Last Day on Earth, Eric Puchner
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Last Day on Earth
Stories

Author: Eric Puchner

Narrator: Ali Andre Ali, Corey Brill, Michael Crouch, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Jeremy Carlisle Parker

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2025

Synopsis

From the author of the Oprah Book Club Pick Dream State, a riveting and profoundly moving story collection by a writer “uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life” (Los Angeles Times).

A boy on the edge of adolescence fears his mother might be a robot; a psychotically depressed woman is entrusted with taking her niece and nephew trick-or-treating; a reluctant dad brings his baby to a debaucherous party; a teenage boy tries to prevent his mother from putting his estranged father’s dogs to sleep. Ranging from a youth arts camp to an aging punk band’s reunion tour, from a dystopian future where parents no longer exist to a ferociously independent bookstore, Last Day on Earth revolves around the endlessly complex, frequently surreal system that is family.

Eric Puchner, hailed as “technically gifted and emotionally insightful” (The New York Times Book Review), and someone who “puts the story back in short story” (San Francisco Chronicle), delivers a gloriously original, utterly memorable collection that evokes both the comedy and tragedy of our lifelong endeavor to come of age.

About Eric Puchner

Eric Puchner is the author of the story collection Music Through the Floor, a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award; the novel Model Home, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction; a second short story collection, Last Day on Earth; and a second novel, Dream State, an Oprah Book Club Pick. His short stories and personal essays have appeared in GQ, Granta, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and more. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore with his wife, the novelist Katharine Noel, and their two children.      

Reviews

Goodreads review by Joachim on October 01, 2019

Reading and especially rating short story collections often feel like bookkeeping. You add up the + and the- and in the end you get your rating. So 3X5 3x4 2x3 2X2,5 ------ Our profit for this book is 3,8 stars. Thank you, come again.......more

Goodreads review by Knitography on August 20, 2017

Puchner's use of language is lovely, but his characters are one-dimensional and the plots are banal and filled with tropes (and, occasionally, jarring and unnecessary sexual violence). These stories are told from a very male point of view, which isn't inherently problematic; I just don't think the w......more

Goodreads review by Katie on February 27, 2017

4.5 stars A solid collection of short stories. While some of the stories veer off into unexpected places they all have heart. In each story, no matter how absurd the situation, there is something very real and relatable. Even if you don't agree with some of the choices the characters made, you still......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on September 15, 2017

Never used to like short story collections but it's so nice to be able to slip in a single story now and then. I really liked these short stories. The first two entries stunned me with their power. We each do have our own last day on earth: “And then it’s over. Just like that. Before you even expect......more

Goodreads review by Nicole on November 29, 2016

Loved, loved Music Through the Floor and Model Home. Was very surprised how novice this collection read.......more

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