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In the world of Gunnhild \xd8yehaug\u2019s fiction, the mechanics of the short story are constantly being pulled apart and played with: characters we\u2019ve followed on a bus turn out to be the inventions of the narrator on page four; an omniscient \u201canalysis department\u201d argues with the author about the validity of a story ending; Baudelaire\u2019s Flowers of Evil turn out to be real flowers growing by the side of the road and the cause of a woman\u2019s broken foot. But the magic of \xd8yehaug\u2019s latest collection, Evil Flowers, translated from Norwegian by Kari Dickson, is how these subversions still manage to awaken us to the wonder of real, ordinary, corporeal life, whether our main character is a loner searching for connection on a travel forum or a girl who turns everything she touches into slime eels.

Go beyond the episode:

• Gunnhild \xd8yehaug\u2019s Evil Flowers, translated by Kari Dickson
• Read \u201cNice and Mild,\u201d from Knots, her first collection to be translated into English
• Check out her two novels, Present Tense Machine and Wait, Blink, adapted into the film Women in Oversized Men\u2019s Shirts (sadly only available in Norwegian)

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek. Follow us on Twitter @TheAmScho or on Facebook.

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