Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood

Bradley Sides merges the South with the weird in his latest collection of magical realism short stories, Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood. Here, a boy creates a guide to his beloved pond monster, a parent weighs the consequences of the coming apocalypse, a man protects a jar of delicate moths, a test taker fearlessly faces death, a young woman rejects ownership of her vampire family’s farm, a father leaves a letter for his ghost daughter, and a flood of broken robots sparks pure joy. Full of grief, loss, and, somehow, even hope, Sides’ fantastic stories boldly and tenderly explore the complexities of humanity.

“Bradley Sides’ new collection is a traveling carnival filled with pond monsters, vampire girls, fire-breathing children, and minor apocalypses. It’s also a collection of good-hearted people trying to make their way through unstable worlds of wonder and joy—in other words, the stories of our lives.” —Alexander Weinstein, author of Universal Love

“Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood is a wildly entertaining ride. I loved reading about monsters, a vampire who doesn’t want to take over the family garlic farm, ghost children, the apocalypse, and a prehistoric bird-sister in stories that are hilarious, unsettling, tender, and wise. This terrific collection reveals not only Bradley Sides’ impressive range as a writer but also the strange and wondrous shapes love can take.” —Becky Hagenston, author of The Age of Discovery and Other Stories

“In his latest collection, Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood, Bradley Sides’ literary imagination is extraordinary. Monsters and moths. Vampires and dragons. Holograms and ghosts. Sides gives the reader all of this and more. But this book is not just an imaginative feat, through its otherworldly lenses we see clearly what it means to be heartbreakingly and beautifully human. These stories are remarkable.” —Andrew Siegrist, author of We Imagined It Was Rain

“With his second story collection, Bradley Sides poignantly illustrates the divide between myth and magic, between monsters and men. Crocodile Tears Didn’t Cause the Flood invites readers to bear witness to the melancholic yet brilliant transformation of characters who long for family—those broken and found, who sway upon the precipice of faith and unbelief, who ache in the absence of children and parents. In a time when asking, begging, and praying for miracles isn’t enough, Sides has gifted us a book full of them.” —Nathan Elias, author of The Reincarnations and Coil Quake Rift