HEARTBROKE

Winner of the 2023 California Gold medal Book Award for Fiction

Named a New York Times Best California Book of 2022
STARRED reviews in Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist
An NPR Best Book of the Year

United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the stories of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to salvage her own lost motherhood. A phone sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and son selling dreamcatchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny. Told in bright and snapping prose, these stories illuminate a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun.

PRAISE:

Winner of the California Book Award

[A] bold, uncanny ode to California’s Central Valley…lucid, compassionate prose.” -The New York Times

“Bieker’s vignettes have the quality of a postcard sent by a Quentin Tarantino character, if that character grew up in Del Rey reading Flannery O’Connor and Annie Proulx.” -LA Times Book Review

“The sun-baked raisin farms, tiny churches, and shimmering highways seem to glint under the influence of Bieker’s astute prose, but its the characters themselves—often men and women in crisis, their children tossed inadvertently into the fallout—who confound and allure.”-Elle Magazine

“There is a Coen brothers–esque dark zaniness to their plots, which are full of hapless criminals and bumbling lovers, all filtered through lovely prose . . . In nearly all the stories, the mother-child relationship is the beating heart, a heart that is shot through with the poison of poverty, substance abuse, and disenfranchisement. But that Bieker finds such humor and poetry in that heart is a testament to both her skill and her tender affection for her wayward characters. Larger than life and darker than hell.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Readers will get lost in this riot of a collection, like a sun-bleached fever dream.” Booklist

Portland Monthly Profile

“THE STORIES ARE, AS THE TITLE IMPLIES, HEARTBREAKING, BUT BIEKER’S COMPASSION FOR HER CHARACTERS WILL KEEP YOUR EYES GLUED TO THE PAGE.” —SARAH STIEFVATER, PUREWOW

“SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF SUNNY CALIFORNIA, IN THESE STORIES, YOU WILL ENCOUNTER: TEENAGERS FLIRTING WITH DANGER, AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTHER–SON DUO, A PHONE SEX OPERATOR, A VERY SAD KIDNAPPER. CHELSEA BIEKER IS BACK, BABY!” —KATIE YEE, LIT HUB, ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“[AN] EXEMPLARY FIRST COLLECTION . . . A POWERFUL COLLECTION; HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.” —LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW)

“WRENCHING . . . DARKLY COMIC . . . THROUGHOUT, BIEKER’S DEEPLY HUMAN NARRATORS BEND THE READER’S EAR WITH MEMORABLE STORIES.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

“BIEKER FLEXES A GIFT FOR THE SHORT FORM IN HER SEARING FIRST COLLECTION. EACH STORY DRAWS READERS IN, MOVING THEM TO LOVE BIEKER’S CRUSTY CHARACTERS BEFORE ENDING JUST IN TIME TO SATISFY . . . THE VOLUME IS TURNED WAY UP ON THE CORRUPTION OF THESE CHARACTERS’ RELATIONSHIPS AND THE SEVERITY OF THEIR MISSTEPS; SUCH BIG, LOUD BEHAVIOR CREATES AMPLE SPACE TO OBSERVE THEIR PULSING HUMANITY. READERS WILL GET LOST IN THIS RIOT OF A COLLECTION, LIKE A SUN-BLEACHED FEVER DREAM.” —BOOKLIST(STARRED REVIEW)

“LARGER THAN LIFE AND DARKER THAN HELL.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

“HEARTBROKE IS ASTONISHING - EVERY STORY IS STILL LODGED IN MY THROAT. BIEKER’S LACERATED WORLD IS FILLED WITH VIOLENT MEN, DESPERATE WOMEN, ABANDONED CHILDREN, ALL FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL, DIGNITY, AND REDEMPTION. BIEKER IS REFRESHINGLY UNSENTIMENTAL BUT RELENTLESSLY COMPASSIONATE, AND HAS A VIRTUOSIC ABILITY TO INHABIT HER CHARACTERS' SUFFERING WITHOUT FLINCHING. HEARTBROKE SHOULD COME WITH A WARNING: ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING.” -STEPHANIE DANLER, AUTHOR OF SWEETBITTER AND STRAY

"HEARTBROKE MADE ME FEEL AS THOUGH I WERE WATCHING A GREAT DANCER WHO HAS GONE REALLY DEEP INTO THE MUSIC, ALL VITALITY AND GRACE AND A SENSE OF DAZZLING RISK. CHELSEA BIEKER IS AN ABSOLUTELY CRACKLING TALENT." —LAUREN GROFF, AUTHOR OF MATRIX

“FOR FANS OF LARRY MCMURTRY’S WILD WEST AND MARY GAITSKILL’S PRICKLED DARKNESS, HEARTBROKE IS SUSPENSEFUL AS HELL, THRUMMING WITH HEAT AND HUMANITY. RAUCOUS AND ECSTATIC, BIEKER SHIES AWAY FROM NOTHING. -T KIRA MADDEN, AUTHOR OF LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS

“I AM AWESTRUCK AT THE SOULS BIEKER CHANNELS, THE WORLDS SHE CONVEYS, THE RESILIENCE SHE SUGGESTS BELONGS TO US ALL, FOR THE TAKING.” -ALLIE ROWBOTTOM, AUTHOR OF JELLO GIRLS

“UNBEARABLY BEAUTIFUL AND BRIMMING WITH LONGING, THESE STORIES DISPLAY BIEKER’S FULL-THROATED WIT, ENDLESS COMPASSION, AND STUNNING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.” -KIMBERLY KING PARSONS, AUTHOR OF BLACK LIGHT