Joe Meno is a fiction writer, journalist, and a bestselling author of several novels and short story collections, including Marvel and a Wonder, The Great Perhaps, The Boy Detective Fails, and Hairstyles of the Damned. In his Book of Extraordinary Tragedies (Akashic Books), Aleksandar and Isobel are siblings and former classical music prodigies, once destined for greatness. As the only Eastern European family on their block on the far South Side of Chicago, they were inseparable. Then, forced to confront the absurdity of tragedy at an early age, they abandoned their musical ambitions. Now in their twenties, they face ridiculous jobs, unfulfilling romantic relationships, and the outrageousness of ordinary life. Doomed by fate, a family history of failure, and a younger brother with a peculiar fondness for catastrophes, the siblings have all but given up. But when illness forces Isobel and her young daughter to move back into the family home, and Isobel begins playing cello again, Aleks comes to see a world of possibility and wonder. Is it ever truly possible to separate our fates from those we’ve come to love?
