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Long-listed for the Giller PrizeA New Yorker Must-Read
The award-winning author of Fifteen Dogs conjures up worlds-real, invented, uncanny -in this ingenious, electrifying collection.A Trinidadian obeah man finds himself reborn, a hundred years after his death, in the body of a Canadian child; a writer takes up a seasonal job as a caretaker for a set of mysterious large sacks hanging from the rafters of the houses in a small town; a woman starts a relationship with the famous artist who painted portraits of her mother; the contents of a sealed envelope upends a woman's understanding about a tragic crime she committed at the age of six . . .
In this dazzling collection of stories, André Alexis draws fresh connections between worlds: the ones we occupy, the ones we imagine, and the ones that preceded our own. He introduces us to characters during moments of profound puzzlement, or at a crossroads, and transports us from 19th century Trinidad and Tobago to small-town Ontario, from Amherst, Massachusetts to contemporary Toronto.
These captivating stories reveal flashes of reckoning, defeat, despair, alienation, and understanding, all the while playfully using a multitude of literary genres, including gothic horror and isekai, and referencing works from the greats like Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Yasunari Kawabata, Witold Gombrowicz, and Tomasso Landolfi.
Masterfully crafted, blending poignant philosophical inquiry and wry humour tinged with the absurd, here are worlds refracted and reflected back to us with pristine clarity and stunning emotional resonance as only André Alexis can.
About the author
André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His novel,
Fifteen Dogs, won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His debut novel,
Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His other books include
Pastoral (nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize),
Asylum,
Beauty and Sadness,
Ingrid & the Wolf,
Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa, and
Lambton, Kent and Other Vistas: A Play.
