Short Story Recommendation #5

Well, it was inevitable, wasn’t it? I simply had to recommend an Aimee Bender story, mostly, because she’s my favourite short story writer. Ever. (You can read me interviewing her here.)

I think it’s safe to say I could recommend any of her stories; they’re all wonderful.

Today I’m sticking with an old and firm favourite. The Rememberer.

It begins…

My lover is experiencing reverse evolution. I tell no one. I don’t know how it happened, only that one day he was my lover and the next he was some kind of ape. It’s been a month and now he’s a sea turtle.

I keep him on the counter, in a glass baking pan filled with salt water.

“Ben,” I say to his small protruding head, “can you understand me?” and he stares with eyes like little droplets of tar and I drip tears into the pan, a sea of me.

He is shedding a million years a day. I am no scientist, but this is roughly what I figured out. I went to the old biology teacher at the community college and asked him for an approximate time line of our evolution. 

Click hear to read it in full.

Published by

nikperring

Nik Perring is a short story writer, author, teacher of writing, and editor from the UK. His stories have been published widely all over the world. His books include the widely celebrated Not So Perfect (Roastbooks 2010), A Book of Beautiful Words; and Beautiful Trees; and he co-wrote Freaks!(TFP/HarperCollins, 2012).

3 thoughts on “Short Story Recommendation #5”

  1. Hi, Nik. I remember the wonderful interview you did with Aimee Bender. The Rememberer is the story you advised I read to get to know her work. Loved it and have gone on to read more of her writing. She is wonderful.

  2. This is the story opening that had me ordering her first collection after reading it on Amazon via the look inside feature. Her debut collection is easily in my top five reads of this year. Great story and thanks again for pointing me at her stories.

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