This Business of the Flesh - Tapa blanda

“C. Kubasta’s This Business of the Flesh is so compelling and engaging that I read it straight through. You don’t have to be a dog person to appreciate how much she knows about dogs, because she knows plenty about the human species too, and she certainly knows how to write about the human body and its desires. Her novel is smart and funny and irresistible, with plenty of room for all kinds of life-forms.”

— Valerie Sayers, author of The Powers and Brain Fever

“This Business of the Flesh is a noble, quiet, and ultimately graceful novel populated by a chorus of believable, flawed, and charming characters - a few of them of the animal-variety.  A jaunty, heartfelt, and occasionally sexy book that demonstrates the unlikely ways in which we discover salvation and forgiveness.”

— Nickolas Butler, internationally best-selling author of Shotgun Lovesongs, Beneath the Bonfire, and The Hearts of Men

“In This Business of the Flesh, Kubasta provides sharp insight into complex family dynamics and the interconnected relationships in a small town, moving effortlessly among characters, wrestling with stories of class, environmental concerns, and the nature of a happy life. A story of small-town America told with refreshing dignity and respect for its people and their stories, Kubasta introduces a cast you’ll be happy to spend time with. You’ll marvel at how she so quickly brings these characters and the lives they inhabit to life.”

— Chrissy Kolaya, author of Charmed Particles: a novel and Any Anxious Body: poems

“Achingly raw and exquisitely poetic, This Business of the Flesh is a meditation on the blood and bones of our existence; fierce and tender Americana.”

— Christie Perfetti Williams, writer, producer Carnival Girls Productions

When Tracy’s brother Aaron commits suicide, she inherits his dogs: two dog-aggressive pit bulls and the French mastiff Stella.

As Tracy navigates her grief, she also has to learn how to care for her new dogs – who come with issues of their own. The dogs provide independent Tracy with ready-made fences, and necessitate new relationships with others exploring their own memories, fractured families and mental health issues. Life in the small Wisconsin town is a fishbowl of sorts, but also a place where pain is private – oblique and whispered.

For anyone who has loved a dog, for anyone who has tried to navigate the class distinctions of small-town America, for anyone who has tried to balance the expectations of who the world says they should be with their own unruly desires, This Business of the Flesh speaks to the families & friendships we make out of our pasts.