The title story of Bang Crunch is about an eight-year-old girl Eepie who has Fred Hoyle syndrome. This means that like some kind of miniature, speeded-up universe, she’ll age a month every day, until she gets to a certain age, when the process will reverse itself and she’ll de-age a year every day. She has a sculptor boyfriend, Roy, who has Tourette’s syndrome, and together they rescue a kitten and name it Gnab (bang spelled backwards).

A cover that reads like a sound poem: “Bang!” (crunch) “Stories.” Meeeowwww!