From the award-winning author of the national bestseller Idaho comes a stunning collection of stories that explore how unexpected intuitions forever alter the lives of ordinary people.

Five years after moving into the isolated house in rural Oregon where her husband lived as a child, the protagonist of “Victor’s Room” begins to doubt her husband’s account of his family’s past. In “Round Lake,” a young woman’s plans to meet a lover in Tokyo are upended when she learns a startling truth about her mother’s death. In “Owl,” winner of an O. Henry Award, a fur trapper reckons with the dreadful origins of his marriage after his wife is brutally injured by four adolescent boys. 

Haunting and psychologically provocative, and set against the vivid backdrop of the Pacific Northwest, Nightjar illuminates the secret, instinctive knowledge that lies just under the surface of our awareness.

Early Reviews for Nightjar

“Emily Ruskovich, who wrote the best-selling and award-winning 2017 novel Idaho, proves herself to be a master of short fiction with this stunning collection of five short stories set against the otherworldly backdrop of the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Whether the stories revolve around a young woman moving into her husband’s childhood home or an estranged father grieving the loss of his brother, all of them explore the flimsy intersection between secrets and innocence, truth and memory.”—Harper’s Bazaar

“To read Emily Ruskovich is to unwrap a gift: her stories are surprising, rewarding, beautiful. There are strange love affairs, hearts gently breaking, cherished childhood memories that turn out to be untrue; in clear and distinctive prose, she evokes the epic scope of quiet lives.”—Paula Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of A Slow Fire Burning

“These are marvelous and unsettling stories. Ruskovich’s prose is lambent, the relationships between her characters are thorny, complex, and mesmerizing, and the shapes of her stories constantly surprise. I loved Nightjar.”—Kelly Link, bestselling author of The Book of Love

“These are exquisite short stories. They disturb, delight, and linger long after finishing.”—Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

“Ruskovich blends urgent pacing with lush wooded scenery and intimate psychological details. It’s a marvel.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“In this exquisitely tailored collection of five stories, Ruskovich plumbs the depths of mystery, memory, and the quiet grief of intimacy. . . . Like Idaho, this book has a compelling slipperiness, both in time and reality. Ruskovich’s characters are often in two places in time at once, and she expertly weaves memory and observation to fuse the past and present together. . . . A portal to a haunting, liminal Pacific Northwest.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Read an Excerpt, with Paula Hawkins Introduction:

A Quiet Enchantment Invites the Universe Into a Goat Pen in Idaho