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Fiction. Art. It's possible to read LIFE RAFT as a continuation of The Brain Harvest, Nash's first story collection. The major themes of sundry infatuations, family relations, and the power of art to sustain us remain. But there is something new happening below the surface, lingering beneath each story. Something darker and more threatening than anything in The Brain Harvest. Yet, like with that first story collection, LIFE RAFT remains determined to reveal that art and imagination are perhaps the only way to safely traverse such dark waters.
"Life Raft," the title story of Nash's new collection, makes this creative strategy nearly explicit. Nine passengers are apparently lost at sea aboard a small, inflatable raft. They have been drifting for an inexplicably long period of time. How can they survive like this? Why is it taking so long to be rescued? The subtle, dry humour neither causes nor saves us from complete despair.
About the author
Ken Nash is the founder of the Alchemy reading & performance series in Prague. His short fiction has appeared in
The Prague Revue, Bordercrossing-Berlin and
X-24. The Brain Harvest (& Other Autobiographical Fictions) was published by Equus Press in 2012, followed by his second story collection, LIFE RAFT, in 2019.
