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The Good Eye
- Author
- Jess Gibson
- Narrator
- Jess Gibson
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Publish Date
- 12 May 2026
- Run Time
- 4 hours 29 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Startling, spellbinding stories, in which appearances and intentions are rarely what they seem from an exciting new voice in fiction.
A psychic harnesses her talent for animal communication to extract a perfect revenge. A stone appears in a woman’s pocket like a charm, only to end up lodged in her partner’s throat. A condescending artist, who considers his girlfriend too conventional, throws a dinner party where he’s served a painful and consequential truth.
Jess Gibson brings us twelve probing, sideways tales that wrestle with the limits of perception and possibility. The men and women in her stories confront contradictory forces: the beautiful can turn grotesque, the exalted can fall into disgrace, the genius can be proved an impostor.
Sharp, funny, surprising, and utterly original, The Good Eye announces a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.
Critics Review
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“The best first collection of stories I’ve read in years: witty, ironic, unnerving, stylish, and funny, very funny. The stories are wonderfully written but Gibson’s sensibility is what’s most striking. It’s like going for a walk with a charming and cultivated guide who knows her way around some of the most vivid parts of hell.”—André Alexis, author of Other Worlds: Stories
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“Astoundingly accomplished. Unsettling, forensically observed, and written in devastatingly pristine prose, these stories burrowed their way under my skin and lingered there. Jess Gibson does not write like a debut author. These are modern stories imbued with a sense of timelessness.”—Jan Carson, author of Quickly, While They Still Have Horses: Stories
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“Wise, seductive, funny, and psychedelic, The Good Eye is written in gloriously precise and tactile prose, illuminating the antechambers and edges of life—apparitions, fakes, visitations by ghosts, rodents, and stray lovers—where both threat and insight glistens. Hopeful and renegade like Joy Williams and with a sly Mona Lisa smile, Jess Gibson moves between a high-altitude view and the very muscle of life to uncover what fluorescence it might hold. This collection took my breath away. A quietly, cumulatively, supernaturally brilliant debut.”—Claudia Dey, author of Daughter
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"The Good Eye is the kind of collection I'm always looking for and never seem to quite find. The power in these beautifully understated stories is in the concision—and precision—of the language. No gimmicks here, just direct, clear-eyed prose. And moving, human struggles on the page."—Peter Orner, author of The Gossip Columnist's Daughter
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“The stories in this bewitching collection begin in the known world before tilting towards mystery and rebellion—a book full of pleasure and surprise.”—Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists and Long Distance: Stories
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“In the masterful debut story collection from Gibson, characters confront eerie and unexpected situations…Throughout, Gibson builds impactful stories out of richly evoked settings and airtight psychological insights. The author exhibits remarkable range in this inspired and deeply accomplished work.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)
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“Twelve smart, understated stories about uncanny and magical moments in everyday life… Often, the stories themselves perform surprising and original sleights of hand, starting with one character only to reveal that another is the real star…Well-mannered stories about women in the throes of rejecting convention and exercising all varieties of magic.”—Kirkus Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Jess Gibson
- Narrator
- Jess Gibson
- Duration
- 4 hours 29 minutes
- Release Date
- 12 May 2026
- ISBN
- 9781668656389
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Genre
- Short stories, Fiction: general and literary, Magical realism, Family life fiction, Narrative theme: Love and relationships
Synopsis
“The stories in this bewitching collection begin in the known world before tilting towards mystery and rebellion—a book full of pleasure and surprise.” —Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists and Long Distance: Stories Startling, spellbinding stories, in which appearances and intentions are rarely what they seem from an exciting new voice in fiction.  A psychic harnesses her talent for animal communication to extract a perfect revenge. A stone appears in a woman’s pocket like a charm, only to end up lodged in her partner’s throat. A condescending artist, who considers his girlfriend too conventional, throws a dinner party where he’s served a painful and consequential truth.  Jess Gibson brings us twelve probing, sideways tales that wrestle with the limits of perception and possibility. The men and women in her stories confront contradictory forces: the beautiful can turn grotesque, the exalted can fall into disgrace, the genius can be proved an impostor.  Sharp, funny, surprising, and utterly original, The Good Eye announces a brilliant new voice in contemporary fiction.    
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