Author Challenge: Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler is an author who crosses genre boundaries. Some of her work borders on fantasy or horror, but more than falling into the standard genre tropes, Fowler's work often touches on the numinous, the ineffable, the impossible. Whether she does that within genre our without, the result is fantastic.

I think of Fowler as a literary genre writer -- she breathes depth, nuance and insight into fields where you'd hardly expect them. And she's a master of characterizations and detail -- so often, individual paragraphs feel like complete stories in and of themselves, giving you a vivid portrait with just a few well-chosen details.

Notable books include:

• The Jane Austen Book Club: Six friend read Jane Austen together -- each their own character, each with their own interpretation of Austen; and each finds reflections of Austen in their own tumultuous lives.
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A portrait of a dysfunctional family. Excellent, excellent characters, as usual. Hard to say more without spoiling the book (please, please, don't let anybody spoil the book, not even the back cover).
• What I Didn't See And Other Stories: An excellent collection of Fowler's short fiction.
• Sarah Canary: A weird variety-show take on 1873 America, where a Chinese railroad worker finds himself accompanying an apparent madwoman wherever she goes. Mystifying.

One of the things I love about Fowler is that her books are dense and rich; they'll provide so much material for questions and discussion. I think she'd be an excellent selection.