The Office of Historical Corrections

Danielle Evans

20 January 2022
9781529059458
288 pages

Synopsis

‘Brilliant . . . These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in.’ – Roxane Gay

‘Evans is blessed with perfect pitch.’ – Tayari Jones

‘Sublime short stories of race, grief, and belonging . . . an extraordinary new collection.’
New Yorker

Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history.

We meet Black and multi-racial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief – all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history – about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.

In ‘Boys Go to Jupiter’ a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In ‘Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain’ a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend’s unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a Black scholar from Washington DC is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.

A dazzling dissection of our twisted attitudes about race, culture, history, and truth.
With the seven brilliant stories in The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans demonstrates, once again, that she is the finest short story writer working today. These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in . . . wickedly smart and haunting.
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans reminds me why I love short fiction . . . Evans is blessed with perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue – both in terms of what is spoken and what goes unsaid.