This collection of selected stories is from the author of the short story ‘In Another Country’, which inspired the Oscar/Academy Award nominated film #45Years.
The stories of David Constantine are unlike any others. His characters
possess you instantly, making you see the world as they do – sometimes
as exiles, driven into isolation by convictions that even they don’t fully
understand; sometimes as carriers of an unspoken but unbearable weight.
The things they pursue, or evade, are often unseen and at a distance – like
the perfectly preserved body of a woman in the title story, waiting to be
discovered in the receding ice of a Swiss glacier. These tokens of the past,
or future, haunt Constantine’s characters, but the landscapes that produce
them also offer salvation, places of refuge or small treasures to take solace
in – like the piece of driftwood a beachcomber chooses to carve into his
idea of perfection.
Gathering together stories from over two decades of writing, this selection
demonstrates why Constantine has been hailed as ‘perhaps the finest of
contemporary writers in this form’. Their bewitching and urgent language is
at one and the same time unsettling and ‘strong enough to help’.
‘Revelatory… Constantine is always attuned to the interplay between the
tangible and the invisible.’ – The Wall Street Journal
‘Spellbinding.’ – The Irish Times
‘Superb… Constantine’s writing is rare today, unafraid to be rich and allusive
and unashamedly moving.’ – The Independent
‘I started reading these stories quietly, and then became obsessed, read
them all fast, and started re-reading them again and again. They are gripping
tales, but what is startling is the quality of the writing. Every sentence is both
unpredictable and exactly what it should be. Reading them is a series of
short shocks of (agreeably envious) pleasure...’ – A.S. Byatt in The Guardian
@commapress
Genre: Literary Fiction
The stories of David Constantine are unlike any others. His characters
possess you instantly, making you see the world as they do – sometimes
as exiles, driven into isolation by convictions that even they don’t fully
understand; sometimes as carriers of an unspoken but unbearable weight.
The things they pursue, or evade, are often unseen and at a distance – like
the perfectly preserved body of a woman in the title story, waiting to be
discovered in the receding ice of a Swiss glacier. These tokens of the past,
or future, haunt Constantine’s characters, but the landscapes that produce
them also offer salvation, places of refuge or small treasures to take solace
in – like the piece of driftwood a beachcomber chooses to carve into his
idea of perfection.
Gathering together stories from over two decades of writing, this selection
demonstrates why Constantine has been hailed as ‘perhaps the finest of
contemporary writers in this form’. Their bewitching and urgent language is
at one and the same time unsettling and ‘strong enough to help’.
‘Revelatory… Constantine is always attuned to the interplay between the
tangible and the invisible.’ – The Wall Street Journal
‘Spellbinding.’ – The Irish Times
‘Superb… Constantine’s writing is rare today, unafraid to be rich and allusive
and unashamedly moving.’ – The Independent
‘I started reading these stories quietly, and then became obsessed, read
them all fast, and started re-reading them again and again. They are gripping
tales, but what is startling is the quality of the writing. Every sentence is both
unpredictable and exactly what it should be. Reading them is a series of
short shocks of (agreeably envious) pleasure...’ – A.S. Byatt in The Guardian
@commapress
Genre: Literary Fiction
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Used availability for David Constantine's In Another Country