Mark Haddon

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Oklahoma

First Edition

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 abduct∨ 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.

The Pier Falls and Other Stories

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'He writes with the craft of Julian Barnes or, even, Truman Capote.' The Times A Spectator Book of the Year An expedition to Mars goes terribly wrong. A seaside pier collapses. A thirty-stone man is confined to his living room. One woman is abandoned on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. Another woman is saved from drowning. Two boys discover a gun in a shoebox. A group of explorers find a cave of unimaginable size deep in the Amazon jungle. A man shoots a stranger in the chest on Christmas Eve. In this first collection of stories by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon demonstrates two things: first that he is a master of the short form (several of the stories have been longlisted for prizes), second that his imagination is even darker than we had thought.

Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Like New

Listed - 4 months ago

Views - 3

Ships From - Oklahoma

Est. Publication Date - May 2016

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Category - Fiction / General Fiction

Format - Hardcover

Condition - Like New

Listed - 4 months ago

Views - 3

Ships From - Oklahoma

Est. Publication Date - May 2016

Additional Information

Publisher Description

Tags

The Pier Falls

By:

$4.99

Condition

Format

Meet the seller

Discover more

The Pier Falls

By: Mark Haddon

'The Pier Falls' readers also enjoyed:

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