USA Today Bestseller A Debutiful “Best Debuts of the Year” “Rich and wise, humming with confidence.” - New York Times Book Review “A knockout. Eleven knockouts. One KO for every story.”-Elizabeth McCracken “ Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is a frontrunner for Book of the Year.” - Debutiful Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's wrenching and sensational debut story collection presents a Hawai'i where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth. A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (pig) on the haunted Pali highway portends one young woman's fraught relationship with her pregnant body. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in a giant flower. A kanaka writer, mid-manuscript, feels her raw pages quaking and knocking in the briefcase. Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets. “The contemporary Hawaii of Kakimoto's debut is neither idyllic backdrop nor tragic fable; the stories evoke the land and its intermixing cultures in all their anxiety, claustrophobia and restlessness . . . Weaving Hawaiian words into English ones, Kakimoto positions language as a tether to our most ancient and eternal selves . . . Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is rich and wise, humming with confidence in the knowledge of a particular community's lovely, miserable ways.” ― The New York Times Book Review “Megan Kamalei Kakimoto is a short story writer that all other short story writers should study. She has the ability to captivate readers with a single sentence. Her prose bursts with exquisite confidence that makes it hard to believe this is a debut collection. Every Drop is a frontrunner for Book of the Year.” ― Debutiful “The world desperately needs more Hawaiian voices in literature (and everywhere!), and Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's debut collection is a brave and atmospheric addition. Reflective and bold, the stories take on the violence of colonization while celebrating Hawaiian identity and womanhood.” ― Ms. Magazine “Kakimoto's debut collection tells 11 stories of contemporary Hawaiian identity, mythology, and womanhood. Unruly sexuality, generational memory, and the ghosts of colonization collide in what promises to be an auspicious short-fiction debut.” ― The Millions, Most Anticipated “Modernity and mythology collide in this haunting and entrancing story collection by an exciting new voice in fiction.” ― The Philadelphia Inquirer “This debut story collection, set in contemporary Hawai'i, is both a luscious ode to native Hawaiian women and a ferocious report from an occupied territory full of tension and rage.” ― Bustle “Kakimoto's collection reads like a glass of water filled to the brim . . . An obvious master of the sentence . . . Her lines cross time and space, building an entire world in just a few moments . . . Always, the question of what it means to live as a Native Hawaiian woman in an illegally occupied territory roils beneath the surface of Kakimoto's stories . . . With this debut collection, Kakimoto makes herself a household name not just when it comes to the literature of Hawai'i, but proves herself to be one of the best short story writers writing right now.” ― The Common “Alive and haunted by possibility, full of characters in slippery relationships. The body horror and ghostly spirits throughout aren't grisly. There's a softness to them, much like those whispered warnings of the opening. It's beautifully constructed from start to finish, and while the stories will get under your skin, it's a welcome invasion.” ― Autostraddle “These lightly speculative stories about girls and women in Hawaii are immersive and haunting in all the best ways, and they'll stick with you after reading it just as much as the gorgeous cover.” ― Book Riot, The Best Book Covers of 2023 “Kakimoto interweaves themes of sexual desire and fertility with Hawaiian mythology in her unflinching debut collection . . . Marked by a wry sense of humor and an unerring touch for the surreal, Kakimoto's stories add up to a powerful exploration of gender, class, race, colonialism, and domestic violence. This eloquent outing marks Kakimoto as a writer to watch.” ― Publishers Weekly, starred review “All things weird, wonderful, mysterious, and mythical collide in this excellent debut story collection. Focused on mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women and ensconced in Hawaiian history and lore, each story explores what it means to be a woman, but especially a woman of color . . . This great book signals the arrival of a very talented writer.” ― Booklist, starred review “It would be fitting but too simple to call this collection haunting. The stories in Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare are so lavishly ima