Synopsis

If you could be anything, what would you be? And what happens to the people you leave behind? In Portalmania, Debbie Urbanski wields sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and realism to build a dark mirror that she holds up to the ordinary world. Within the sharply imagined landscape of this collection, portals appear in linen closets, planetary gateways materialize in boarding schools, monsters wait in bathroom vents, and transformations of womens bodies are an everyday occurrence. Political division causes physical rifts that break apart the Earths crust. A son on another planet sends dispatches home to the mother who failed him, and a wife turns to the supernatural to escape her abusive marriage. Portals are not only doorways found in childrens classics, but separations, escapes, dead ends, desertions, and choices that will change these characters lives forever. Against a fantastical backdrop, these stories dive bravely into the shadowy depths of betrayal, parenthood, revenge, murder, coercive sex, open marriages, marital rape, asexuality, neurodiversity, and second chances. What if were not the ideal parents for our children? What if were not the ideal person to live our own life? Portalmania questions why we love as we do and asks if we have enough courage to reimagine desire.

About The Author

Debbie Urbanski is the author of the novel After World. Her stories and essays have been published widely in such places as The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Best American Experimental Writing, The Sun, Granta, Orion, and Junior Great Books. A recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation WritersAward, she can often be found hiking with her family in the hills south of Syracuse, New York. She is still looking for her portal.

This is a standard paperback/soft cover version.