The New and Improved Romie Futch (43 page)

—
BRADFORD MORROW
, author of
The Forgers

“Julia Elliott's stories—which thrive beautifully somewhere between the lyrically haunting works of Barry Hannah and the retrospective works of Lewis Nordan—offer nothing but the great, beautiful, dark regions of the human heart. These are stories to be cherished, taught, and brooded upon. These are stories in which to bathe oneself.”

—
GEORGE SINGLETON
, author of
Stray Decorum

“Julia Elliott's stories are an endangered species—vital, poignant, and rare. Readers should send themselves recklessly into
The Wilds
, for they will emerge spellbound, all the better for it.”

—
KATE BERNHEIMER
, author of
How a Mother
Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales

“
The Wilds
[is] a very well-written book of short stories that are creepy and weird in the good way. In the title story, a girl wearing a homemade crown of bird skulls tells of getting taken prisoner by a feral pack of boys, known as the Wilds, who live nearby. ‘Their chests glowed with firefly juice. They had steak knives strapped to their belts and some of them wore goggles.' How can you go wrong with that setup?”

—
ARTHUR BRADFORD
, author of
Turtleface and Beyond

©
THOMAS ROSS

JULIA ELLIOTT's fiction has appeared in
Tin House
, the
Georgia Review
,
Conjunctions
,
Fence
, and other publications. She has won a Rona Jaffe Writer's Award, and her stories have been anthologized in
Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses
,
Best American Fantasy
, and
Best American Short Stories
. Her debut story collection,
The Wilds
, was chosen by
Kirkus, BuzzFeed, Book Riot
, and
Electric Literature
as one of the Best Books of 2014 and was a
New York Times Book Review
Editors' Choice. She is currently working on a novel about hamadryas baboons, a species she has studied as an amateur primatologist. She teaches English and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where she lives with her daughter and husband. She and her spouse, John Dennis, are founding members of the music collective Grey Egg.

The New and Improved Romie Futch

Copyright © 2015 Julia Elliott

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact Tin House Books, 2617 NW Thurman St., Portland, OR 97210.

Published by Tin House Books, Portland, Oregon and
Brooklyn, New York

Distributed by W. W. Norton and Company

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Elliott, Julia 1968-

The new and improved Romie Futch : a novel / Julia Elliott. -- First U.S. edition.

       pages cm

ISBN 978-1-941040-15-7 (alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-941040-16-4 (eBook)
I. Title.
PS3605.L4477N49 2015
813'.6--dc23

2015016030

COVER IMAGE CREDIT:
Illustration from
Greek Myths
. Illustration copyright © 2010 by Sarah Young. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, on behalf of Walker Books, London.

First US edition 2015
Interior design by Diane Chonette
www.tinhouse.com