The Mutual UFO Network - Hardcover

Praise for The Mutual UFO Network

"Martin has written a not-to-be-missed masterwork of slow-burning emotions." --Booklist starred review
"A superb story collection that brims with tragedy and compassion." --Shelf Awareness starred review
"With no irony or judgment, Martin peers into the lives of ordinary families and communities, and shines a light on the secrets that we all keep too deep in our hearts to ever speak them...a solid and satisfying short-story collection that pays homage to all facets and stages of life, the light and the dark, the bitter and the sweet."
-The Coil
"Quiet traumas and long-festering emotional wounds abound in this collection...With precise storytelling, Martin chronicles the unrest in his characters' lives and the shocking moments when tensions reach their breaking points."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Martin cleverly exposes the fractures between husbands and wives, family and friends, in these twelve excellent stories of people lying to themselves because the truth is too painful to admit...a vivid, emotionally precise collection."
-Publishers Weekly
"We know these characters, distant literary cousins of the lonely men and women brought to life by Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and Richard Ford. ... Martin's in full control of both the rhythm and blues in each story. He is the craftsman, the master architect, and those skills and Martin's adherence to his primary mission -- to tell a story worth telling -- are what make this collection so thrilling."
-PopMatters
"Martin favors the wanderers--those navigating the untidy shambles of lost love, of families cracked and broken apart, of past and present sins. The collection contemplates galactic questions of life and death as easily as it telescopes into the most intimate and regular sorrows of humanity."
--Crazyhorse
"The Mutual UFO Network explores the complexity of human relationships, which is as terrifying, strange, and incomprehensible as any extraterrestrial lifeform....Martin's stories are not a quick-to-the-point affair; they are like his prose: long, savory, complex affairs that are meant to evoke as much joy as empathy. The takeaway is that location does not thwart misfortune, that people who two-step are as relatable as those who floss. We are all human."
--The Coachella Review

Lee Martin is the author of eight books, including The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper's, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He is also director of the MFA Program at The Ohio State University and lives in Columbus, OH.