“Cummins’s innovative work delivers well-crafted stories, vivid characters, and unsettling emotional gravitas.”—Publishers Weekly
“In this collection of stories, the art of truth-telling has been combined with the magic of fortune-telling. . . . Moving and haunting, edgy and searching, reaffirming and devastating. To read it is to be dazzled, and to be changed. A serious accomplishment.”—Laura Kasischke, author of Mind of Winter
“What would Emma Bovary face in our twenty-first century—would she find her needed liberty, or trudge through a life that is only different from hers cosmetically? These questions arise when I read If the Body Allows It. Megan Cummins is a gifted storyteller, and these stories, intimately written, nevertheless peel off all layers from everyday existence to reveal the deep wounds, the tender hopes, and the dilemmas, tragic and comic, of the modern-day Emmas in the world.”—Yiyun Li, author of Where Reasons End
“Megan Cummins writes with great tenderness about the world today, when nothing seems stable and everyone has to find meaning where they can. . . . There is great wisdom here, and solace, and brilliance, and surprising laughs. I loved this book so much.”—Alice Elliott Dark, author of In the Gloaming
