The Heroes & Other Stories - Tapa blanda

Set against the colorful, yet sometimes strangely cold, backdrop of Manhattan, the stories in this collection are peopled with a very particular breed of heroes, not quite what they're fighting for. Here you will find characters in progress, people still getting to who they are: a self-conscious student who feels incomplete without a partner, a talented artist blind to the beauty of his own work, a couple who can't bring their love of an idealized past into the present, and an unstable woman whose breakdown causes those around her to realize their own frailty. These everyday heroes all have their own flaws and failings, all fall short time and time again, but struggle on, after worthy but elusive ideals: a sense of self, and a connection to the world around them.

Kat Hausler is the youngest of four siblings, and grew up in Northern Virginia. She spent several years in and around Greenwich Village while studying German and Creative Writing at New York University, but since 2008 resides in Berlin, where she writes, teaches English, and is studying to become a certified translator.