Published by Otis Books/Seismicity Editions in 2008, this story collection features offbeat heroines forging their way through the California desert and other equally stark locales, on a paradoxical quest for solitude on the one hand and human connection on the other.
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“A stingingly funny fiction debut.”
– Bomb Magazine
“A quietly devastating and mordantly funny collection.”
– LA Weekly
Populated by wise animals and hapless humans, The Protester Has Been Released evokes an end-of-the-world feeling that is equal parts dread and hilarity. In ten precisely rendered stories and a novella featuring the American president’s daughter, Sarbanes takes on the big questions with gallows humor: What is freedom? What is love? What is art? And what does it matter now?
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“Gentrification and western entitlement, rampant carcinogens, and a crisis of consciousness in academia all perform their dysfunction in Sarbanes’ stories to ends both serene and droll. The effect is at once pleasantly unsettling and funny, making The Protester a must-read for radicals, conscientious objectors, and abstainers alike.”
— A Women’s Thing
“The characters in these stories feel familiar, even in the most extreme situations, because they struggle with issues of vulnerability and being unable to act or to be heard. They turn to art, language, and hope, and even when they fail, Sarbanes shows that there is always beauty and sometimes humor in the trying.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“Sarbanes employs a number of devices and motifs that all serve a central purpose: exposing the Emperor’s naked ass . . . her total commitment to each premise, her sharp wit and her ear for dialogue make each new world she unveils easy to find oneself immersed in.”
— ROAR magazine
A young girl named Vita, her llama friend Graeber and many others live happily together on a giant pancake. It doesn’t hurt to fall there, and whenever they get hungry, they just tear off a piece of the pancake and eat it. But one day a greedy stranger starts stuffing the pancake into his dirty great bag, and they must band together to save it.
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Looking to get a book for your child, or someone else’s child, that isn’t the usual branded superhero princess crap?! Look no further than this sweet but slyly radical book for kids by Janet Sarbanes and Amy Sarkisian, with typically excellent design work by Kimberly Varella.
— Half Letter Press