Cover

Acclaim for Matthew Klam’s

SAM THE CAT
AND OTHER STORIES

A Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
An Esquire Best Book of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book
A Kansas City Star Book of the Year

“Like the stories of Salinger and Cheever, these will doubtlessly be remembered as a chronicle of their time, place and class. Few short story writers are funnier than Klam. Few are so horribly true.”

—Esquire

“The first piece of Matthew Klam’s fiction I ever read was so good I almost passed out…. I can only compare Matthew’s writing to long letters from male best friends— the kind replete with matter-of-fact, naked, sometimes vulgar details about life, love, and women.”

—Claudine Ko, Jane Magazine

“[A] smart, absorbing collection.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“A good writer creates characters whose motives and emotions reflect our own dark secrets. A great writer makes us wonder about our life choices; we squirm as if our own lives were the subject of the book…. [Klam] has an uncanny knack for crystallizing the truth about relationships.”

—USA Today

“Entertaining and skillfully constructed.”

—The Washington Post

“Klam’s stories are so witty, assured, and damned entertaining…. Klam nails what it means to be a heterosexual man in America today.”

—The Austin Chronicle

“Some silliness is necessary just to get through the hard knocks of life. Klam’s writing is fresh. He uses foul language, takes chances and gets into the dirty corners most of us would rather hide with a rug. Sam the Cat is his first book. It will earn him fans waiting for more.”

—The Seattle Times

“Unnervingly dead-on.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Funny, surprising and often fearless, these stories mark a strong debut, and promise better things ahead.”

—The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Ruthlessly insightful…. Klam has a major bead on women.”

—Harper’s Bazaar

“The frank sexuality and emotional honesty of these stories originally sparked a debate at The New Yorker about whether they were fit to be published in that august magazine. Luckily for us all, wiser heads prevailed. This collection is a treasure.”

—The Washington Times

About the Author

MATTHEW KLAM

SAM THE CAT
AND OTHER STORIES

Matthew Klam is the author of the acclaimed short story collection Sam the Cat. He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, a Whiting Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His writing has been featured in publications including The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction.

Title Page

Dedication

THIS BOOK IS FOR LARA COX

SAM THE CAT