We’d Like to Recommend Some May 2026 Books
May 19, 2026
PAPERBACK | 4 x 6 | 48 PAGES | $15.00
978-1-954992-17-7
FICTION | CHAPBOOK | SHORT STORY
Our people had moved to Bounty because the land was there and it was empty, and now all we had was the emptiness and one another.
When Albert Rasmussen loses his wife, he proposes something unthinkable: that he and his children sleep through the winter. What begins as one family’s attempt to escape their sorrow spreads across town, drawing neighbors into a collective hibernation that promises rest, renewal, and release—at a cost no one can fully name.
Horrocks writes with the emotional acuity of a realist and the imaginative charge of a fabulist, turning a quiet premise into a haunting meditation on rest, avoidance, and the strange rituals communities build around loss.
Caitlin Horrocks is author of the story collections Life Among the Terranauts and This Is Not Your City, both New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice selections. The Wall Street Journal named her novel The Vexations one of the Ten Best Books of 2019. Her stories and essays appear in The New Yorker, The Best American Short Stories, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The Paris Review, One Story, and other journals and anthologies. She was previously a senior fiction editor at The Kenyon Review.
We’re thrilled to share that Vol. 1 Brooklyn has included The Sleep by Caitlin Horrocks in their May 2026 monthly reading recommendations, highlighting it as one of the standout literary releases of the month.
Vol. 1 Brooklyn has been one of the most trusted, sharp‑eyed hubs for contemporary literature. Since 2009, they’ve championed boundary‑pushing fiction, indie presses, and the writers shaping the next wave of American storytelling. Their monthly roundups are widely read by booksellers, critics, and devoted literary readers—so seeing The Sleep appear there is a meaningful moment for us and for Caitlin’s unforgettable story.
If you haven’t yet read the review, we encourage you to take a moment to check it out—and then pick up a copy of The Sleep for yourself or your favorite reader.
Independent presses thrive when readers follow their curiosity, and this is a perfect place to start.
