From Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, A Spot of Bother, and The Red House, nine dazzling stories diverse in style but united in emotional power The tales in Mark Haddon’s lyrical and uncompromising new collection take many forms—Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realism—but they all showcase his virtuoso gifts as a stylist and the deep well of empathy that made his three bestselling novels so compelling. The characters here are often isolated physically or estranged from their families, yet they yearn for connection. In aggregate the stories become a meditation on the essential aloneness of the human condition but also on the connections, however tenuous and imperfect, that link people to one another. In the title story, an unnamed narrator describes with cool precision a catastrophe that strikes a seaside town, both tearing lives apart and bringing them together. In the prizewinning story “The Gun,” a boy’s life is marked by the afternoon he encounters a semiautomatic pistol belonging to his friend’s older brother; in “The Island,” a Greek princess is abandoned on an island by her abductor; in “The Boys Who Left Home to Learn Fear,” a group of adventurers travel deep into the Amazonian jungle but discover the gravest danger lurking among their own number; and in “The Woodpecker and the Wolf,” a woman wonders whether she has chosen to travel to Mars only to escape the entanglement of human relationships back here on Earth. Drawing inventively from history, myth, folktales, and modern life, The Pier Falls showcases Haddon’s immense gifts of invention and penetrating insight.
In a bravura feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father.
Inspired by literary novelists such as Ian McEwan, Anne Tyler and John Updike, Paul uses vivid images to make the reader feel as though they are right there in the story.
Dr. Forman was one of those men who did humor without smiling. He looked like a villain from a James Bond film. It was disconcerting. “Weeping, sleeplessness and anxiety,” said Dr. Forman. “Always makes me laugh when l read that under ...
‘As much a thriller as a chilling exploration of grief, The Woman on the Pier is one of B P Walter’s finest—and most shocking—novels yet’ A. J. Gnuse, author of Girl in the Walls
The Road to Wigan Pier is Orwell's 1937 study of poverty and working-class life in northern England.
Against the backdrop of a strange family gathering, Haddon skillfully weaves together the stories of eight very different people forced into close quarters.
There is sea air and sand castles, comedians and jugglers; but this is no postcard from the good old days as sex and violence are never far away. …and when Martin learns something about his mother - a secret, a lie - he is compelled to ...
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award A Sydney Taylor Notable Book Tablet Magazine's Best Jewish Kids Books of the Year A young teen falls in with the mob, and learns a lesson about what kind of person he wants to be.
A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a ...
Presents a collection of short stories based on traditional fairy tales that expose the futility of idealism.