Exit Zero

In Exit Zero, Marie‑Helene Bertino delivers a spellbinding collection of twelve stories where the uncanny intersects with everyday life. In one tale, a woman inherits a unicorn her estranged father cherished, an absurd yet haunting presence that upends a motel stay in Rio Grande, New Jersey. In another, helium balloons drop cryptic messages in a garden; elsewhere, ex‑partners rain from the sky, and a blind boy rediscovers the world in a cathedral’s echoing halls.

Bertino’s prose is at once luminous and slyly playful, able to wedge wonder and strangeness into the most mundane moments. A haunted peach, a ghost appearing in airport security, even a cameo in a Cheers episode, all come alive with precision and heart, revealing how grief, longing, and humor coexist in our daily routines.

Critics hail Exit Zero as a master class in short fiction: dazzling, light‑touch surrealism anchored in photorealistic detail, with each story building into a fiercely inventive whole. The collection has earned glowing praise as darkly funny, emotionally vivid, and structurally impeccable