Praise for THE CAKE, THE SMOKE, THE MOON

 

Dark, glittering, and dead serious when it’s not hilarious, The Cake, the Smoke, the Moon is a delight. Within these pages you’ll find potent gems by a master miniaturist; stories that crackle with the sheer electricity of their inventiveness. This is a book of and for the haunted among us, where only the moon (and Francine Witte) know the truth.

–Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018 

 

Francine Witte’s precise economy of words and rich employment of voice, scene and imagery create such vibrant evocations in the extraordinary The Cake, The Smoke, The Moon. She is, without a doubt, a modern-day Chekhov, and one of the most luminous stars in the flash and micro world.

—Nathan Leslie, Best Small Fictions & Hurry Up and Relax  

  

The twenty very short stories in Francine Witte’s The Cake, The Smoke, The Moon are by turns sharp and tender, quirky and heartbreaking in their explorations of feckless fathers, the mother who imparts life lessons through lemon wedges, and the children who are left to wonder “Where does smoke go when it dies?” I can’t think of another writer working today who writes so brilliantly and precisely, whose keen eyes and ears are tuned in to the grotesque and the beautiful – in essence, the worlds we’ve wrought.

–Sarah Freligh, author of We