In The Wrong Heaven, Amy Bonnaffons draws us into a delightfully strange universe, in which her conflicted characters seek to solve their sexual and spiritual dilemmas in all the wrong places. The title story’s heroine reckons with grief while arguing with Jesus and Mary lawn ornaments that come to life when she plugs them in. In “Horse”, we enter a world in which women transform themselves into animals through a series of medical injections. In “Alternate”, a young woman convinces herself that all she needs to revive a stagnant relationship is the perfect poster of the Dalai Lama.

Intelligent, wry and crackling with energy, The Wrong Heaven is a stunning debut collection about the subtle mysteries beneath the surface of our lives and our power to transform.