Gigantic: Stories From the End of the World

"A hidden gem," where the stories read like "Black Mirror episodes"—in ten engaging and original short stories, author Benjamin Harnett visits characters at the end of the world and chronicles their immense personal growth—figuratively and, sometimes, literally.Inventive and poetic, these stories bend genres, marrying tales of domestic woes, coming-of-age, love and friendship, loss and discovery, with fantastic and mysterious happenings on an individual, societal, and global scale. From the dangers of vaccine skepticism to the ethics of museum displays of looted artifacts, the stories in Gigantic hit important issues head on.

From suburban New Jersey to subterranean caverns, from the mysteries of quantum entanglement to the attacks of homicidal squirrels, from young Communists to giant youngsters, every page is a journey to an unexpected milieu. In “Gigantic” the children of the world experience a growth spurt. In “The Snap” a woman has the power to replay moments in her life. In “The Weather Underground” a young cave guide is faced with his hardest path yet. “Delivery” is all about freeing yourself, and in “Tom Doolie” a very nasty man doesn’t get what he deserves. “The Stick Man” is a tale of rebirth, while “Natalia” is about the face we present to the world. “This Little Piggy” went to market. “Nuts!” is crazy. “The Device” will recreate your most-prized possessions save one.

Stories in this short collection were published in literary journals and on sites like Moon City Review, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Brooklyn Quarterly, and Ducts. The story “Delivery” was selected by Longform as fiction of the week. It also includes a chapter-long preview of Harnett’s “trippy, ambitious debut novel” (Edward Sung, for IndieReader) The Happy Valley, for readers interesting in reading more of Harnett’s unique and genre-bending prose.

About the Author

Benjamin Harnett is a poet, fiction writer, historian, and digital engineer. He is the author of “Diffusion of the Codex” an important paper about the ancient history of the book. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Aeon, Columbia Review, The Saranac Review, Poet Lore, ENTROPY, The Evansville Review, and elsewhere. He has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart. He lives in Cherry Valley, New York with his wife Toni Hacker and their collection of eccentric pets. He co-founded the cult-classic fashion brand Hayden-Harnett with Toni in 2005. He works for The New York Times.

He is the author of the poetry collection Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (2020), and the novel The Happy Valley (2022).