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"Cat Person" and Other Stories
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About The Book
*Includes the story “Cat Person”—now a major film*
A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complex—and often darkly funny—connections between gender, sex, and power across genres.
“These stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.” —Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
“Kristen Roupenian isn’t just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psyche…The world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.” —Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author
Previously published as You Know You Want This, “Cat Person” and Other Stories brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sex…until they can’t have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for “something mean”; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heart’s desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed “biter” who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.
Spanning a range of genres and topics—from the mundane to the murderous and supernatural—these are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable—or worse, understood—as if to say, “You want this, right? You know you want this.”
A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complex—and often darkly funny—connections between gender, sex, and power across genres.
“These stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.” —Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
“Kristen Roupenian isn’t just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psyche…The world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.” —Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author
Previously published as You Know You Want This, “Cat Person” and Other Stories brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sex…until they can’t have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for “something mean”; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heart’s desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed “biter” who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.
Spanning a range of genres and topics—from the mundane to the murderous and supernatural—these are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable—or worse, understood—as if to say, “You want this, right? You know you want this.”
About The Author
Photograph by Elisa Roupenian Toha
Kristen Roupenian holds a PhD in English from Harvard, an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, and a BA from Barnard College. She is the author of the short story, “Cat Person,” which was published in The New Yorker and selected by Sheila Heti for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018. She is at work on a novel. Follow her on Instagram @KRoupenian.
About The Readers
Photograph by Elisa Roupenian Toha
Kristen Roupenian holds a PhD in English from Harvard, an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, and a BA from Barnard College. She is the author of the short story, “Cat Person,” which was published in The New Yorker and selected by Sheila Heti for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018. She is at work on a novel. Follow her on Instagram @KRoupenian.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (January 15, 2019)
- Runtime: 7 hours and 52 minutes
- ISBN13: 9781508266914
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Raves and Reviews
“The stories in You Know You Want This are wildly strange and deeply human. When it comes to the secret hurt and twisted desires that lurk in seemingly mundane encounters between men and women, Kristen Roupenian is a super genius. I loved every single word of this freaky, fantastic book.”
– Julie Buntin, author of Marlena
“These transgressive and darkly electric stories announce the arrival of a bold, new, necessary voice in American short fiction.”
– Claire Vaye Watkins,, Story Prize-winning “5 Under 35” author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn
“In an age that needs a wrecking ball, You Know You Want This provides one. This is a raucous, visceral page-turner that tunnels into the heart of relationships gone awry, modern-day miscommunications, and other horrors of being human. Not polite. Suffers no fools. Takes no prisoners. Read it.”
– Jeff VanderMeer,, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation
“If you think you know what this collection will be like, you’re wrong. These stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.”
– Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
“Exceptionally compelling; I love the way these stories create a world that is simultaneously familiar and deeply unsettling, showing—in strange and surprising ways—the interplay of disgust, fear and desire. Images from the book keep coming back to me: its narratives feel both mythical and completely modern.”
– Megan Hunter, The End We Start From
“Kristen Roupenian isn’t just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psyche—things that I always supposed I would learn at some point, but never did. Some of these things are about men’s minds in particular and I’m pretty sure she’s right. The world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.”
– Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author of The First Bad Man
Resources and Downloads
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): "Cat Person" and Other Stories Unabridged Audio Download 9781508266914
- Author Photo (jpg): Kristen Roupenian Photograph by Elisa Roupenian Toha(0.1 MB)
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