I Am the Ghost Here: Stories

Samek debuts with a striking collection of fantastical and speculative stories about conformity, technology, and the limits of bodily autonomy. The unnamed narrator of the title entry, a Thai woman who works at a hair salon, learns that her older brother, Jeff, a Stanford graduate and tech entrepreneur, owes his success to a “puppeteer” named Michelle, a self-described “empath” who tells him how to act and what to say. In “The Sharpest Knife,” patients infected by a strange virus have major organs removed. The narrator, a former gymnastics coach, carries her heart around in a mason jar while it functions via Bluetooth. Adopting a growth mindset, she becomes a popular influencer, while her husband flounders following the removal of his brain. After an exhausted new mother turns into scrambled eggs in “Egg Mother,” her husband encourages her to see a therapist, who presses her to open up about her past. “The Cloud” depicts a phenomenon in which women temporarily lose body parts during rolling blackouts. When the narrator reports her missing arm to the power company, she’s told it’s safe in “the cloud” and she’ll get it back once power is restored. Throughout, Samek elicits genuine pathos and offers astute social commentary. This dazzles. Agent: Martha Wydysh, Trident Media Group. (Feb.)