When participants in a group-therapy session are asked to describe their first memories, long-buried demons and emotions flood out. It’s a valuable exercise for everyone except the story’s narrator.

The thirteen stories in Andrew Pyper’s intense and artful short-story collection, Kiss Me, deal with the issues, sensibilities and intangible estrangements of contemporary youth. But there are no neat and tidy coming-of-age passages here: these are narratives about reaching out—and often failing to touch—one another in a time of both privilege and fracture.

HarperCollins brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperCollins short-stories collection to build your digital library.

ANDREW PYPER is the author of Lost Girls, his highly acclaimed first novel that was a bestseller in Canada, in the Top 10 on the TimesUK paperback list and in the Top 30 of The New York Times paperback bestseller list. The novel was selected as a Notable Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail and The New York Times and is currently being adapted for the screen. His second novel, The Trade Mission, was selected as a Top 10 Best Book of the Year by the Toronto Star and was published in Canada, the US and the UK to great acclaim. Pyper is also theauthor of Kiss Me, a collection of short stories. While researching and writing The Wildfire Season, he spent three of the past five summers living in the Yukon. His home is in Toronto. Visit his website at www.andrewpyper.com.

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