When you find yourself in a locked room, how do you escape? In one tale, a girl transforms into a gargoyle during a vacation in Paris. In another, a soul is imprisoned in an empty room, waiting to be born. A woman who appears to be disabled reveals that her only true disability lies elsewhere. Young lovers, disguised as sisters, witness the end of their lives amidst the destruction of an iconic city. With rapid and intense build-ups, these stories explore what we hold dear when we know we are about to lose it, how we maintain hope despite our circumstances, and how to navigate life even when we feel as if we are not truly living.

"This collection is a love letter to the misfits and the misunderstood. Christine's writing is both brutal and beautiful. I was hooked."

-Elizabeth Passarella, author of Good Apple

and It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway

"With sentences cut like fine jewels, the characters in Christine Vartoughian's "The Only Way Out is Through the Window," wrestle with doomed love, death, and even becoming a gargoyle. Open the window and escape with them in this must-read collection of stories that reflect the beauty in the world amongst the pain and stay with you forever."

-Lee Matthew Goldberg, acclaimed author of

The Mentor and The Great Gimmelmans

Christine Vartoughian is an award-winning, Armenian-American writer and film director + producer whose work has shown at the Museum of the Moving Image and Lincoln Center. Her feature film about love and suicide, Living with the Dead: A Love Story, has been awarded the Audience Choice Award at The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and is available on Apple TV, Amazon, and Tubi. She is a member of Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Film Fatales, SAG-AFTRA, and a founder of (Screen)Play Press, a publishing company for unproduced film scripts. She lives and people-watches in NYC's East Village @christinewritesaboutyou