Marie-Helene Bertino is an American novelist and short story writer.[1] She is the author of three novels, Beautyland (2024), Parakeet (2020)[2] and 2AM at the Cat's Pajamas (2014),[3] and one short story collection, Safe as Houses (2012).[4] She has been awarded a
Pushcart Prize[5] and an
O. Henry Prize[6] for her short stories.
Bertino's first book of short stories, Safe as Houses, was selected by
Jim Shepard as the winner of the 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Prize and was subsequently published by
University of Iowa Press.[19]Safe as Houses was long-listed for the 2013
Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award[20] and was named as one of
The Story Prize's Outstanding Collections of 2012.[21]Safe as Houses notably includes the story "North Of," in which a woman brings Bob Dylan home for Thanksgiving dinner.[22] "North Of" had previously been awarded a Pushcart Prize[5] and the 2007
Mississippi Review Prize in Fiction.[23] "North Of" has also been anthologized in Mississippi Review 30[24] and was republished in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading.[25]
2AM at the Cat's Pajamas, her debut novel, was published by
Crown in 2014.[26] It was selected as a 2014
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick[26] and was one of
NPR's Best Books of 2014.[27]
Her second novel, Parakeet, was published by
Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2020.[2]Parakeet follows an unnamed bride in the weeks leading up to her wedding after she is visited by the ghost of her grandmother, appearing in the form of a parakeet, who tells her to find her estranged sibling.[28] Bertino has noted that the character of the grandmother in Parakeet is modeled after her own grandmother, who was an immigrant from the
French Pyrenees.[1]Parakeet was met with critical acclaim upon publication.[2][28][29][30] The
review aggregator website
Book Marks reported the average review for Parakeet was a rave based on 12 critical reviews.[31]Parakeet was a
New York Times Editors' Choice,[32] a top-ten book of the year at the
Huffington Post,[33] and was long-listed for an
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction[34] and the 2020 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.[35]
Beautyland, Bertino's third novel, was published in January 2024 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[36]