Manuel Gonzales

Manuel Gonzales (born 1974) is an American author of short fiction and novels blending absurdist comedy with genre premises. His debut collection, The Miniature Wife and Other Stories (2013), gathers surreal short pieces, including the title story about a scientist whose experiment accidentally shrinks his spouse. His first novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack! (2016), follows a covert agency of teenage assassins recruited to fight supernatural threats, told through the perspective of a young recruit caught in an internal coup. Gonzales's fiction is known for mixing deadpan, matter-of-fact narration with fantastical and often violent scenarios, placing him among a generation of writers working at the border of literary and genre fiction.