Description: "Some stories make you feel you''re in the planned world of a conscientious architect, and others are more like wandering through someone else''s dream. That Phillips can take us into her dreams without losing us in the fog is to her huge credit....Parenthood is a subject especially suited to Phillips strange and profound gifts." --The New York Times Book Review "Phillips plays out for us what might happen if the impossible were possible. . .She is a master at building slightly askew worlds that resemble our own but allow for the inexplicable, the astonishing, the surreal. She drops you in these worlds with just enough of a flotation device to keep you bobbing above water, but avoids excessive explanation and exposition." --Los Angeles Times (interview) "Phillips''s gift is for making the peculiar seem like its happening down the street...Just when you think you''re on to Phillips''s game, here comes another little fable, postmodernist puzzle, or sly revelation." --O, The Oprah Magazine "Startling, refreshing...[Phillips''srah Magazine "Startling, refreshing...[Phillips''srah Magazine "Startling, refreshing...[Phillips''srah Magazine "Startling, refreshing...[Phillips''s] characters...signal the comfort and safety of love, family and relationships in the midst of strange, discomfiting realities." --Houston Chronicle "Beautiful...completely captivating...Part of what is so delightful about this book is the way the stories surprise you...Every single [story] is exquisite...Warm, generous...incredibly humane" -- Jaime Green, appearing on WBUR ''OnPoint'' "Some Possible Solutions . . . presents us with a surreal, disturbing assemblage of worlds, each complete and somehow totally convincing despite their strangeness. . .a delight--there is joy in its darkness, and pleasure in its exuberant imagination." --BuzzFeed, The 24 Best Fiction Books of 2016 "I love Helen Phillips''s wild, brilliant, eccentric brain. Her vision flashes down like a lightning bolt into everyday terrors--having a baby, caring for a sick relative, raising a child in a city suffocating for lack of green space--but in a way so wonderfully awry that every single story in Some Possible Solutions has a freshness to it that comes as a shock to the reader''s system." --Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies "This stunning collection establishes Helen Philips as one of the most interesting and talented writers working today. In atmosphere and setting, her stories are often reminiscent of Kafka and Atwood, yet her voice and style are entirely her own. A fascinating, unsettling, and beautifully written work." --Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven "Helen Phillips sings like a Siren on the page (if a Siren also had a killer sense of humor). The short stories in Some Possible Solutions feature doppelgangers and sister-savants, impossible staircases and surreal city parks; they swing open like doors onto rich, strange worlds, which, on closer inspection, reveal themselves to be our own...These tales are true originals, shining their eerie, lovely lights on the water and asking questions that linger."--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! "Things happen that cannot happen. Marriages, motherhood, dinner parties, the future -- Helen Phillips shows us the uncanny seams of ordinary lives and wishes. What is the purpose of stories as strange, as lovely, as unsettling as these? There''s the joy the reader takes in Phillips''s sentences, of course, and her way of seeing. But there''s also the sense that we have been invited on a desperately needed tour of our own dreams, nightmares, premonitions in which Phillips will be our guide. I recommend the experience to any and all -- this is an essential collection." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble "The short stories in this darkly absorbing collection remind us of the hope and humanity, the warmth, joy, and love that can be found in even the bleakest circumstances. One of the many remarkable things about Phillips'' fiction is that, even as she conjures unsettlingly grim dystopian futures, which seem to be an unfortunate extension of today''s urban reality, or fixes her focus on untidy aspects of the here and now, she reveals something essential, enduring, and glitteringly beautiful about our most personal relationships...Darkly delicious collection." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "High concepts and sly emotion animate this solid collection of allegorical fiction...A feel of the fantastic...playfulness and discovery...characterizes the collection as a whole." --Publishers Weekly "An uncanny but captivating read...[ Some Possible Solutions ising, her stories are often reminiscent of Kafka and Atwood, yet her voice and style are entirely her own. A fascinating, unsettling, and beautifully written work." --Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven "Helen Phillips sings like a Siren on the page (if a Siren also had a killer sense of humor). The short stories in Some Possible Solutions feature doppelgangers and sister-savants, impossible staircases and surreal city parks; they swing open like doors onto rich, strange worlds, which, on closer inspection, reveal themselves to be our own...These tales are true originals, shining their eerie, lovely lights on the water and asking questions that linger."--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! "Things happen that cannot happen. Marriages, motherhood, dinner parties, the future -- Helen Phillips shows us the uncanny seams of ordinary lives and wishes. What is the purpose of stories as strange, as lovely, as unsettling as these? There''s the joy the reader takes in Phillips''s sentences, of course, and her way of seeing. But there''s also the sense that we have been invited on a desperately needed tour of our own dreams, nightmares, premonitions in which Phillips will be our guide. I recommend the experience to any and all -- this is an essential collection." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble "The short stories in this darkly absorbing collection remind us of the hope and humanity, the warmth, joy, and love that can be found in even the bleakest circumstances. One of the many remarkable things about Phillips'' fiction is that, even as she conjures unsettlingly grim dystopian futures, which seem to be an unfortunate extension of today''s urban reality, or fixes her focus on untidy aspects of the here and now, she reveals something essential, enduring, and glitteringly beautiful about our most personal relationships...Darkly delicious collection." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "High concepts and sly emotion animate this solid collection of allegorical fiction...A feel of the fantastic...playfulness and discovery...characterizes the collection as a whole." --Publishers Weekly "An uncanny but captivating read...[ Some Possible Solutions isllips''s sentences, of course, and her way of seeing. But there''s also the sense that we have been invited on a desperately needed tour of our own dreams, nightmares, premonitions in which Phillips will be our guide. I recommend the experience to any and all -- this is an essential collection." --Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble "The short stories in this darkly absorbing collection remind us of the hope and humanity, the warmth, joy, and love that can be found in even the bleakest circumstances. One of the many remarkable things about Phillips'' fiction is that, even as she conjures unsettlingly grim dystopian futures, which seem to be an unfortunate extension of today''s urban reality, or fixes her focus on untidy aspects of the here and now, she reveals something essential, enduring, and glitteringly beautiful about our most personal relationships...Darkly delicious collection." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "High concepts and sly emotion animate this solid collection of allegorical fiction...A feel of the fantastic...playfulness and discovery...characterizes the collection as a whole." --Publishers Weekly "An uncanny but captivating read...[ Some Possible Solutions isegorical fiction...A feel of the fantastic...playfulness and discovery...characterizes the collection as a whole." --Publishers Weekly "An uncanny but captivating read...[ Some Possible Solutions ising, her stories are often reminiscent of Kafka and Atwood, yet her voice and style are entirely her own. A fascinating, unsettling, and beautifully written work." --Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven "Helen Phillips sings like a Siren on the page (if a Siren also had a killer sense of humor). The short stories in Some Possible Solutions feature doppelgangers and sister-savants, impossible staircases and surreal city parks; they swing open like doors onto rich, strange worlds, which, on closer inspection, reveal themselves to be our own...These tales are true originals, shining their eerie, lovely lights on the water and asking questions that linger."--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! "Things happen that cannot happen. Marriages, motherhood, dinner parties, the future -- Helen Phillips shows us the uncanny seams of ordinary lives and wishes. What is the purpose of stories as strange, as lovely, as unsettling as these? There''s the joy the reader takes in Phillips''s sentences, of course, and her way of seeing. But there''s also the sense that we have been invited on a desperately needed tour of our own dreams, nightmares, premonitions in which Phillips will be our guide. I recommend the experience to any

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