~30,000 WORDS
©2010
ECW Press

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Whether its a report from the real Cannes or a young couple discovering that reading Jacques Derrida aloud can lull their child to sleep, Jim Hanas finds the strange in the everyday and the everyday in the strange.

Hanas writes a lean and powerful line that makes even absurd situations—a man who cries professionally, a beauty queen leaving her slob boyfriend for an astronaut—seem painfully familiar.

Why They Cried answers its own question and the answer is funnier than you think.

"Reminiscent of George Saunders and James Thurber, Why They Cried is a great collection of modern tales." — Hannah Tinti, author ofThe Good Thief and co-founder of One Story magazine

"Jim Hanas has a remarkable talent for imagining and crafting uncanny little worlds that make me vaguely nervous. And yet I never want to leave." — Rob Walker, co-founder of Significant Objects

"A tender and smart assembly of fiction about people trying to communicate -- with each other, the world -- and all the ways they fail. Fail better, fail beautifully." — Fiona Maazel, author of Last Last Chance