Ottessa Moshfegh

A woman decides to hibernate by taking as many psychiatric medications as she can convince her psychiatrist to prescribe her. But reality calls her out of hibernation when her best friend's mother dies, and she must go to the funeral.

A short story by the young American writer.

Power oscillates between a man and woman who are trying to make something happen, but can never quite get there.

'The Surrogate,' by Ottessa Moshfegh

We sat in the recliners. I ate the cheesecake and my uncle ate the carrot cake. We watched the end of a movie called While You Were Sleeping. Then my uncle emptied his colostomy bag, while I sent that cheesecake down the toilet. I drank some...

This is a story that started off as a confessional letter. I lived in China during my early 20s and until now haven't wanted to write anything about it. "Medicine" appears here as an excerpt from a novel-in-progress about those years.

We moved into a house a few blocks from the Marcy projects at the end of last summer. In time, it became obvious the place next door was a drug den.