Swerving Sizes - by Michael Cocchiarale (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Swerving Sizes is a collection of microfictions composed under strict formal constraints-each piece exactly 100, 200, or 300 words long. Born out of the restrictions of the global pandemic, these compressed narratives examine the fragile terrain of familial and romantic relationships, the realities of illness and mortality, and the unsettling reach of political power. Across subjects and styles, the stories trace how people-like the forms that contain them-strain against imposed limits.

In some pieces, that pressure produces rupture: moments of clarity, release, or transformation. In others, characters remain bound by forces beyond their control, caught inside systems that refuse to yield. Whether offering escape or confinement, each micro exposes the emotional cost of living within narrow margins.

The collection is divided into two sections. Regular grounds itself in realism, while Extra veers into the surreal, absurd, and formally experimental. Though varied in tone and approach, every piece demands close attention-not only to what appears on the page, but to the charged silences and tensions between the lines.