In a claustrophobic, surreal California house, teenager Estรฉe Kraft lives with her domineering father, whose obsession with insect taxonomy bleeds into sadism. As his schemes multiply, Estรฉeโs bedridden mother, entranced by the glow of the shopping channel, remains oblivious to the escalating chaos. Estรฉe manages to escape her childhood home only to find new horrors awaiting her in marriage and motherhood. In a climactic twist, her traumas take form in flesh and bloodโa legacy of the voracious male appetites that have haunted her life.
With acerbic wit, philosophical depth, and enthralling lyricism, Omnivores cuts to the core of Americaโs hypocrisies and anxieties, and introduced Lydia Millet as one of the wildest satirists of our time.
Lydia Millet is the author of A Childrenโs Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Top Ten book of the Year. Her first work of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2010; her second, Fight No More (2018), won an American Academy of Arts and Sciences short fiction award. Ativists is her third work of short fiction. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.