Now available through University of Chicago Press distribution, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your favorite indie bookstore, or my favorite indie bookstore.
“I seldom get this excited about a new collection of stories. Ethan Chatagnier has written a superb book, and I admired every one of these. They are inventive, gripping and surprising. He knows his characters inside out, and by the end of each story, you will too.” — Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World
"In Warnings from the Future, Ethan Chatagnier has collected the sort of stories most writers wish they could pull off—subtle without being opaque, clear and precise without being slow, affecting without being heavy-handed. These stories are sad and hopeful and brimming with empathy for people who are at a crossroads and don't know where to go. Chatagnier is a talented, intelligent writer who has achieved something really impressive." — Tom McAllister, author of How to Be Safe
“Warnings from the Future, cover to cover, is a fantastic collection…. Chatagnier’s prose is at once elegant and conversational. More importantly, his characters are recognizable figures attempting to grapple with the world in constructive and thoughtful ways. What Chatagnier ultimately offers are insightful portraits of employees, grieving family members, decent cops, students and neighbors, i.e. real stakeholders in society, searching dearly for the humanity lost in the system. It is an enviable debut.” — Avee Chaudhuri, for Necessary Fiction
Warnings from the Future: Stories
In ten provocative stories, Ethan Chatagnier presents us with characters in crisis, people grappling with their own and others’ darkness as they search for glimmers to carry them through difficult times, untenable tasks, uncertain futures. The collection explores with unflinching eloquence the quandaries of conscience posed by the present, but also plunges us into a startlingly prescient “what if?” world, exploring in both realms questions concerning the value of perseverance, art, hope, and heart.
In “The Law of Threes,” a reluctant cop tries to survive a night of frenzied police retribution. In “Miracle Fruit,” a genetic engineer is tasked with destroying the world’s last seed bank. “The Unplayable Etudes” follows a damaged yet brilliant pianist as she attempts to perform music designed to be impossible to play. In “Smaller Tragedies,” a conflicted photographer documents the aftermath of an earthquake, while in “Dentists,” a young man watches his neighbors flee under cover of night, fearful of the country-wide escalation of hate-based violence.
“He had walked around the far edge of the produce truck from the other side of the wreck, and was approaching her. He was not screaming, but he was not swaying his arms as he walked either. A thin line of dried blood went from his hair past his ear and down his neck. There is something about a person who is in true need of help, something that creates a beacon, even if they say nothing.”
152 pp., 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
ISBN 978-1-946724-03-8 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-946724-08-3 (e-book)