Your thoughts become fluid, volatile; their aroma fills the room. This is a nerve storm.

In her first collection since Bitter Angel, winner of the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award, Amy Gerstler explores themes of suffering and redemption through a heady blend of folklore, popular culture, and the natural world in Nerve Storm. The poet Eileen Myles has said that the supernatural, the sexy mundane, the out-of-sight are simply [Gerstler’s] materials, employed as they might be in a piece of religious art. A crackling wit and whimsical instinct guide this collection as Gerstler traipses through humanity’s triumphs and blunders, effortlessly revealing the surreal and surprising possibilities inherent in everyday life.