The Man in the Banana Trees - Paperback

by Marguerite Sheffer (Author)

PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection 2025, Finalist
A Debutiful "Most Anticipated Debut Book of 2024"
One of Electric Literature's Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collection of 2024
Named a Best Book of 2024 by Debutiful and Electric Literature

The stories in The Man in the Banana Trees take place in the past, present, and future--from the American Gulf South to the orbit around Jupiter. We meet teachers and students, ghosts and aliens. An ice cream consultant in the year 2036 predicts a devastating flavor trend and a disgruntled New England waiter investigates a mysterious tanker crash. Although wildly varied in setting, length, and genre, a thread of the fantastic unites these stories, as characters struggle to understand that thing lurking at the edge of their perception: something sinister, or maybe--miraculous.

Author Biography

Marguerite Sheffer teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction at Tulane University, and is a founding member of Third Lantern Lit, a local writing collective, and the Nautilus and Wildcat Writing Groups. Sheffer lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.