Wear Your Home Like a Scar

by Nik Korpon

In Wear Your Home Like a Scar, Nik Korpon explores the catastrophic consequences of trying to start anew and reinvent yourself. A clandestine surgeon goes to extreme lengths when she’s torn between family loyalties. A con man tries to help his girlfriend escape her pimp, despite what the tarot cards tell her. A drifter hunts down the man who hung her out to dry with a cartel boss. A sicario has a crisis of faith when an old legend stalks him. From the streets of Baltimore to the comunas of Medellín, the Mexican Sierras to Texas border towns, Wear Your Home Like a Scar shows that no matter how deep you cut, you’ll never truly leave your home behind. Praise for the Stories by Nik “Nik Korpon’s stories read like Sonny Chiba and Don Winslow somehow made a literary baby, in that they will kick your ass, then kick you in the head, and then to the heart.” —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade “There’s an electric charge to Nik Korpon’s stories. They crackle and pop and leave a mark. This is an entire book full of them. Why haven’t you bought it yet?” —Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse “Nik Korpon writes the kind of stories that’ll take your heart out with a post hole digger and stitch it back in with barbed wire. Read them all.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father and Évasion “In his stellar new collection, Nik Korpon effortlessly hacks up chunks of this dark world and serves them up still sizzling, writing with a directness and authenticity that marks him as the real thing.” —Jordan Harper, Edgar Award-winning author of She Rides Shotgun and Love and Other Wounds

250 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 13, 2019

Reviews

[Elizabeth A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

WEAR YOUR HOME LIKE A SCAR is a master class in how to write both short stories and noir. Not a word wasted, no subject too dark to tackle, and absolute unflinching acceptance of the fact that all too often there is no such thing as happily ever after. There isn’t a misfire in the bunch, but there were a few standouts for me.

“A Hundred for the Crows” illustrates just how deep rifts can run, even between brothers. Their relationship poisoned by events that happened decades ago in childhood, a lifetime of estrangement and resentment finally erupts with unforeseen consequences.

“This Will All End Well” is not easily summarized, in large part because it constantly keeps the reader off balance and summarizing it would ruin the changes of direction that occur. There are only three characters involved, two men and one woman, but just what their relationships are to one another constantly shifts as events unfold. The tables don’t just turn, they spin like a Lazy Susan, forcing readers to continuously reassess their perception.

“Only the Vultures Will See Me Hang” is another story of brothers, one who served in WWII, the other in Korea. Back home and drifting, they survive from robbery to robbery. When one brother decides to take something more than cash from a diner holdup gone wrong, it ends up destroying them in a way even the wars couldn’t.

“The Road to Sabaneta” is a heartbreaking account of two young men, best friends since middle school, who were first brought together by circumstance, bonded by experience, then, ironically, torn apart *because* of their love for each other.

Start to finish, every story in the collection packs a powerful punch, the impact of which lingers long after you've finished.