A collection of stories about love and grief, anchored in brokenness—broken people, broken relationships, broken systems—and the obsessions and insecurities that prevent us from revealing ourselves to one another. The characters in Hayden Casey’s debut collection Show Me Where the Hurt Is are on quests for betterment, for pleasure, for distraction—and ultimately, for transformation.
One woman takes up work as an “in-betweener,” hired to fill the lonely gap between relationships. A college student devotes himself to hot yoga in the wake of his mother’s unexpected death. When a buzzy new weight-loss pill hits the market, a woman signs up for a trial—and tries to hide it from her partner. An undergrad becomes entangled in her roommate’s feverish relationship with a grad student and watches in horror as the pair begins to sprout each other’s body parts.
Across thirteen stories that brush up against the strange and surreal, Show Me Where the Hurt Is tenderly exposes old wounds that have been carefully concealed so that we might understand the hurt in one another.
Praise for Show Me Where the Hurt Is:
"Haunting, affecting, troubling, honest. These are the inevitable words of book jackets. But this is no hyperbole. Hayden Casey has written a masterful collection that hits every note. For an assortment of stories about people who don't know where they belong—they hit awfully close to home." —Tatiana Ryckman, author of The Ancestry of Objects
"Hayden Casey is an incredibly inventive, big-hearted writer, and his Show Me Where the Hurt Is is an absolute delight. There’s so much joy and wonder on every page here, so much humor and heartbreak in every finely made sentence and every keenly observed detail. A fantastic debut from a writer I can’t wait to read more of in the years to come."
—Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
"Show Me Where the Hurt Is surprises and delights at every turn. I was impressed by the symmetry of the stories here; wandered along and plucked at every new fruit, which was always just as delicious as the last. The work is compelling and deeply enjoyable. Quite a few times I wondered aloud: how did he do that? This book is terrific and Hayden Casey is a fabulous writer." —Kristen Arnett, author of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One
"Show Me Where the Hurt Is is a beautiful story collection not just about people, but about the wistful, shimmering spaces between them. Hayden Casey magically makes visible the invisible longing between us and those we love but don’t understand, or worry we have lost, or hope to claim or recapture, or simply hope to be seen by, a fraction so well as Casey sees us." —Caitlin Horrocks, author of Life Among the Terranauts and The Vexations
"A luminous collection that shines a light on love in all its forms: from neighbourly and filial, to unrequited and misunderstood. Humane, finely crafted, and sometimes brilliantly weird." —Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals
"Psychologically astute and instantly compelling, Show Me Where the Hurt Is expertly explores connection and dissolution, the wonder and terror of intimacy, and the many ways we show up for each other (or fail to). The lovers, strangers, siblings, and friends in these stories are beautifully complex and gloriously complicated—Hayden Casey has written a stunning collection." —Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe and Black Light
"The stories in this exquisite first collection offer profound and compelling insights into the complexities of our most intimate relationships. Hayden Casey is a wise and lyrical writer who deeply understands both the pains and beauties of love, and our human need for connection." —Tara Ison, author of At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf
