This thought-provoking collection explores the variety of ways that we seek personal and spiritual connections-and the ways that we can poison ourselves and others in our quests. Elizabeth Kadetsky is a writer of keen insight and graceful prose.-Dan Chaon, Stay Awake

Elizabeth Kadetsky deftly constructs fully realized places--some foreign, some familiar--and fully realized characters--some of them more like us than we'd like to admit. She tugs gently on these places and people until she finds their loose strings, and begins spooling out quiet strands of damage or dread. Before you know it, the dread is your own. These stories sneak up on you, hijack you, and before you know it, it's too late. A stunning first collection.-Brian Evenson, Windeye

Funny and smart, with a mouthful of zingers aimed at both your heart and mind, Elizabeth Kadetsky's The Poison That Purifies You is a seamless orb of stories about race, travel, purity, anguish, disappointment, and above all, yearning. With a cast that includes taunting babies, Muslim kidnappers, and New York bicycle messengers, Kadetsky's stories surprise and enthrall the reader, unfolding to reveal a world touched with mystical elegance.-William J. Cobb, The Bird Saviors

Unexpected as the work of Paul Bowles, unflinching as Flannery O'Connor's, these stories are journeys not just into far flung places but into the most mysterious parts of our psyches. And, like the best adventures, they will open your eyes and change your heart and leave you breathing hard. Elizabeth Kadetsky is a brave writer and a masterful guide; she approaches fiction with a searching and strength that makes me want to follow her anywhere.-Josh Weil, The Great Glass Sea

I was transfixed by The Poison that Purifies. Transfixed, awed, shocked, and transported, story after story. Kadetsky's fiction is so brave and complex and beautifully written; it pushes the boundaries of comfort and makes your heart pound. Earthquakes, kidnappings, marauding monkeys; men who thieve and menace and hurt; acts of love and God and shame--it's all there, in Kadetsky's bright and mesmerizing world.-Rachel Cantor, A Highly Unlikely Scenario