Specimen — Irina Kovalyova

Inspired by a wide range influences � -- including early-twentieth century Russian avant-gardists, British science fiction and dystopian novels, as well as contemporary American novelists � -- Specimen is a highly original collection of stories that explore the place where physical reality collides with our spiritual and emotional lives.

In �"Mamochka,” nominated for the 2012 Journey Prize, an archivist at the Institute for Physics in Minsk, must come to terms with her daughter's marriage to a Chinese man in Vancouver. In �"Peptide P,” scientists study a disease of the heart that seems to affect children after they eat hotdogs. In �"Side Effects,” a woman's personality is altered by botox injections. In �"Specimen” a teenage girl discovers that she was conceived using a sperm donor. In �"The Big One,” a woman and her daughter find themselves trapped in the rubble of an underground parking garage after an earthquake. In �"The Blood Keeper,” a novella, a young academic travels to North Korea to work on her dissertation and embarks on a dangerous affair.