Shout Her Lovely Name

The New York Times Book ReviewWhen 14-year-old Nora gets a pair of diamond earrings in the mail from the father she's never met, her mother, Ruby, looks at them and dryly remarks, "They're the size of birth control pills." It's an excellent line, rich with subtext, the kind Natalie Serber delivers again and again in Shout Her Lovely Name, her nuanced and smart collection of stories.
—Robin Romm




Publishers WeeklySerber's intense debut collection would have been better had every story, rather than most of them, traced Ruby Hargrove's evolution from daughter to mother, and her own daughter Nora's reactions to her questionable parenting. After an uneven opening story about a mother and her teenager daughter's eating disorder, we come to "Ruby Jewel," about a college girl reluctantly having drinks with her philandering, alcoholic father.