Exit Zero

#1 Short Story Collection of 2025–Electric Literature

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

A Must-Read: The New York Times Book Review, Bustle, Harper’s Bazaar, Chicago Review of Books, Our Culture, Literary Hub
Winner of PEN/O. Henry Prize: “Exit Zero”
The Best American Short Stories: “Viola in Midwinter”

Twelve delightfully strange, haunting stories from the acclaimed, oracular author of Beautyland.

Death-shaped entities—with all of their humor and strangeness— haunt the twelve stories in Exit Zero. Vampires, ghost girls, fathers, blank spaces, day-old peaches, and famous paintings all pierce through their world into ours, reminding us to pay attention! and look alive! and offering many other flashes of wisdom from the oracle and author of Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino.

“Bertino blurs the line between writer and magician . . . Dazzling.” —Molly Young, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“[Exit Zero will] surprise you. And make you laugh. And sometimes devastate you. Sometimes all of the above . . . Everything [Bertino] writes is covered in a slight dusting of magic.”
—Charles Yu, Bomb Magazine

“Charming and strange . . . Luminous tales of haunting absurdity.”
—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

“Exit Zero, like all of Marie-Helene Bertino’s fiction, climb[s] to the rarest heights by combining intuition with emotional wisdom.”
—Will Chancellor, The Brooklyn Rail

“Exit Zero reveals everyday instances of magic via an expert blend of humor and melancholy.”
—Greta Rainbow, Bustle

“[Exit Zero cuts] at the core of what it means to be alive.”
—Chelsey Sanchez, Harper’s Bazaar

“Bertino’s way of looking at the world continues to dazzle.”
—Sam Franzini, Our Culture