"The smart, witty collection from the prize-winning and bestselling author of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, which The New York Times Book Review called "an absolute pleasure" explores the dark secrets under the surface of contemporary American lives. As he brilliantly accomplished in The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, Benjamin Hale's The Fat Artist and Other Stories holds a mirror to the world, pairing absurdity with philosophical musings on the human condition to expose the power of the secret self. From a man's illicit tryst cut short by his estranged son's homecoming, a prostitute dominatrix about to be caught with a dead US congressman, to a performance artist whose grotesque weight gain becomes an art world phenomenon, Hale's deliberate prose, dark humor, and unforgettable characters explore the secrets beneath the surface of contemporary American lives. In The Fat Artist and Other Stories, Hale openly embraces the grotesque side of human nature and the unnerving intersection between life and death, art and ridicule, consumption and creation"--