Lambda Literary Award, Gay Fiction finalist
Ferro-Grumpley Award for LGBTQ Fiction finalist
Three days after her twentieth birthday, a young woman who grew up in Germany during World War II, crosses the Atlantic to start a new life. Outside Is the Ocean traces Heike鈥檚 struggle to find love and happiness in America. After two marriages and a troubled relationship with her son, Heike adopts a disabled child from Russia, a strong-willed girl named Galina, who Heike hopes will give her the affection and companionship she craves. As Galina grows up, Heike鈥檚 grasp on reality frays, and she writes a series of letters to the son she thinks has abandoned her forever. It isn鈥檛 until Heike鈥檚 death that her son finds these letters and realizes how skewed his mother鈥檚 perceptions actually were.
"Not for the faint of heart, this collection is relentless and intense, but Lansburgh鈥檚 prose offers stunning moments of tenderness amid its stark depictions of loneliness. Arresting and pointed." 鈹 Kirkus
"Lansburgh鈥檚 linked stories succeed as a nuanced character study and a resonant commentary on the challenges of romantic and familial love." 鈹 Publishers Weekly
鈥淟ansburgh has crafted a unique, captivating debut.鈥濃Booklist
鈥淢atthew Lansburgh has a keen eye and ear, and he puts them to great use in this lovely, and, frankly, mesmerizing linked collection that explores, among other things, the tenuous tie between mother and son, between the Old World and the New, between what was and what is. Outside Is the Ocean is a gem.鈥濃擜ndre Dubus III, judge, 海角乱伦社区Short Fiction Award
鈥淓very so often a work of fiction presents us with the great gift of an entire life. What Matthew Lansburgh has given us here, like the points of a constellation, is the breadth of a family, across the many decades, through all their hardships, unspeakable heartbreaks, and small victories. Outside Is the Ocean is a book full of grace and endurance. It鈥檚 an exceptional debut, and we鈥檙e lucky to have it in this world, now.鈥濃擯aul Yoon, author, Snow Hunters
鈥淢atthew Lansburgh's Outside Is the Ocean is one of the best short story collections I've read in years. It's sharp and funny and it sweeps the reader along through the lives of a cast of difficult and damaged characters. But there are no villains here; the joy of reading Lansburgh's stories is that he keeps spinning his characters around, finding tenderness alongside their abjection, compassion alongside hurt, until finally the people in this book feel as human and real as anyone you've known.鈥濃擯aul La Farge, author, The Night Ocean
鈥淢atthew Lansburgh writes with humor and, most of all, deep compassion about loneliness and the disappointments of family. Outside Is the Ocean is that rare collection in which individual stories create a whole that is much more than the sum of those wonderful and deeply satisfying parts. What a lovely, sad, funny new voice this is.鈥濃擫ori Ostlund, author, After the Parade
鈥淢atthew Lansburgh is a great writer in the Raymond Carver vein. Deceptively simple, emotionally deep, his work shimmers with sneaky passion. He鈥檚 the real deal.鈥濃擠arin Strauss, author, Half a Life
鈥淢atthew Lansburgh writes with a remarkable mixture of humor and empathy. These stories are taut with the most meaningful of tensions: the painful complexity of love between two flawed souls trying to find their places in each other鈥檚 lives. Outside Is the Ocean is a poignant and perceptive collection of bravely explored stories built into a deeply affecting debut.鈥濃擩osh Weil, author, The Great Glass Sea
鈥Outside Is the Ocean offers the thrilling revelations of masterful short stories and the deep satisfactions of a novel.鈥濃擜nna Solomon, author, Leaving Lucy Pear
2017 海角乱伦社区Short Fiction Award
2018 Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction, Finalist
2018 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction, Finalist
