SOME PEOPLE LET YOU DOWN
STORIES BY MIKE ALBERTI
“Some People Let You Down is as electrifying and geographically stunning a debut as I've ever read.”
—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
“A debut with the assurance of a masterful writer who has already been with us for years, but in this case, he is finally here."
—Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Mike Alberti sets language aflame with feeling in this extraordinary collection. This is a beautiful, inspiring, and compassionate book.”
—Julie Schumacher, author of Dear Committee Members
“Eloquent, always observant, and never dull, these stories are impossible to put down.”
—Charles Baxter, author of The Sun Collective
The nine stories in Mike Alberti’s debut collection shine a sharp light on small-town American life —not the Arcadian small towns of yesteryear, but the old mill towns hanging on after the mill has stopped running, the deserted agricultural communities in the middle of vast industrial farms, places where bad luck has become part of the weather. But even in these blighted, neglected landscapes, the possibility of renewal always presents itself: there is hope for these places and the characters who inhabit them. In these fresh, innovative stories, some people let you down, but some people don’t.
"In Some People Let You Down, Mike Alberti takes us on a journey through the small towns of middle America. In stop after stop, these stories gift us with beautiful descriptions of everyday people, all hoping for connection, all living in the spaces where dreams and nightmares merge: in that lonely space of one's own limitations and possibilities. All through the reading, I felt myself on the edge of a deep chasm, hopeful that I might fly should I fall."
— Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Song Poet
“The key to Mike Alberti’s Some People Let You Down is the emotional gravity that dominates these characters’ lives, drawing them down into themselves, their pasts, their home towns. This is character-driven fiction at its finest.”
—Zach VandeZande, author of Liminal Domestic: Stories and judge
"Alberti’s well-crafted debut collection creates a thorough portrait of rural life...Alberti demonstrates a graceful talent for short fiction.”
“Most of the stories reflect the compassion of ordinary people. In this way, Alberti’s characters orient themselves toward the divine.”