Concrete Fields

David Gaffney

Editora: Salt

Sinopse

The countryside – what is it for? A paradise on earth where you can relax and get creative? Or an outdoor wool factory where every other house is an Airbnb and there are fewer trees than Camden. In his new collection of short stories David Gaffney explores the theme of town versus country through a number of different lenses, including his own experience of being brought up in west Cumbria then moving to Manchester.
A creative residency on the coast of Scotland becomes weirder and weirder in "The Retreat"; 'I've always had the feeling that the countryside has something against me and that one day it will take its revenge.' In "The Table", a recluse in Penrith uses mid-century furniture to lure city dwellers into a world of 'depressed farmers with shotguns and bottomless pits of slurry that will swallow you so hard you'll never be seen again. And in "The Garages" the pressure of city living forces a man to become oddly obsessed with empty spaces. Often funny, often haunting, often profound, Gaffney uses dark humour and surreal characters to demonstrate a deep understanding of how places, urban or rural, can shape, influence and sometimes distort our lives. 'People who like the countryside tend to believe in things that aren't really there,' says a character in "The Country Pub".
These are indeed stories about things that aren't really there, and this is why they resonate with you long after you have stopped reading.

Disponível desde: 15/07/2023.

Comprimento de impressão: 144 páginas.

Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

Why I Live At The PO - From...

Eudora Welty

The bookshelves of American literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors.  From this continent their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure.  Among them is Eudora Welty.

Ver livro

The Wife of His Youth - From...

Charles W Chesnutt

Charles Waddell Chesnutt was born on 20th June 1858 in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents who were both ‘free persons of color’. His paternal grandfather was a white slaveholder, and Chesnutt although he identified as African-American noted that he was seven-eighths white.
By age 20 Chesnutt had married and settled in Cleveland. After reading law and passing the bar exam he established a lucrative court reporting business, which rapidly elevated his financial standing.
The Atlantic Monthly published his short story, and the first by an African-American, ‘The Goophered Grapevine’. This was quickly followed by 2 volumes of his short stories mainly themed with racial identity that were more complex than those of many of his contemporaries.
Encouraged by Atlantic editors, Chestnutt moved to writing novels. It published his first ‘The House behind the Cedars’ in 1900.
As well as business interests and his writing he also toured on the national lecture circuit, primarily in northern states.
Despite this his novels received poor sales but excellent reviews and so a self-fueling literary career based on novels was beyond his reach.
With the turn of the new century Chesnutt turned more energies to his court reporting business and in 1910, he served on the General Committee of the newly founded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) becoming one of the early 20th century's most prominent activists and commentators.
Chesnutt is now regarded as an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance which did much to reinforce Black culture as a thriving, vibrant and essential part of 20th Century culture.
Charles W Chesnutt died on 15th November 1932. He was 74.

Ver livro

The Withered Arm

Thomas Hardy

The most famous of Hardy's short stories from the collection Wessex Tales read by Emma Hignett

Ver livro

The Fly in the Ointment - From...

D H Lawrence

David Herbert Lawrence was born on the 11th September 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, a coal mining town where the reality of a harsh life was only useful as experiences for future literary works.
He was educated at Beauvale Board School and became the first local boy to receive a scholarship to attend Nottingham High School. After 3 years he became a junior clerk in Haywood’s surgical appliances factory. He was also attempting a literary career which, in the short term, led to a teacher training position in Eastwood and later a teaching qualification from University College, Nottingham.
Lawrence’s first efforts were poems, short stories and a draft of ‘The White Peacock’. Moving to London and a teaching position in Croydon his writing attracted the attention of Ford Madox Ford, editor of The English Review, and he commissioned him to write ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’.
Wanting to write full-time he now began work on what would become ‘Sons and Lovers.
In 1912 he met the older and married mother-of-three Frieda Weekley. They eloped to Germany and here Lawrence could see for himself the growing tensions with France. So keen was his interest that he was arrested and accused of being a British spy.
In early 1914 Frieda obtained her divorce and they returned to Britain to be married just days before the outbreak of war. Owing to her German parentage, and his own public dislike of militarism and violence, the couple were treated with contempt and suspicion throughout the war years.
Despite this he continued to write but his reputation in England was so tarnished and, mirrored by his own disdain for the country, he and Frieda left England in November 1919, first for Europe and then America via Ceylon and Australia.
They bought a ranch in Taos, New Mexico and visited Mexico several times. The third visit in March 1925 caused a near fatal attack of malaria. To convalesce they moved to Florence. Here he continued work on ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ which for many years would cause controversy. A renewed interest in oil painting resulted in an exhibition in 1929 which was raided by the police and several works were confiscated.
D H Lawrence died of complications arising from a bout of tuberculosis on the 2nd of March 1930 in Vence, France. He was 44.

Ver livro

The Master of the Crabs

Clark Ashton Smith

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice.  
In the sinister city of Mirouane, a sorcerer’s apprentice is thrust into a perilous pursuit alongside his enigmatic master, Mior Lumivix. Their quarry: a legendary map leading to the cursed treasure of Omvor, an ancient pirate whose exploits defied both gods and mortals. But another formidable sorcerer, the dark and ruthless Sarcand, seeks the prize as well, wielding powers born of ancient seas and forbidden magic. 
As their journey takes them to the desolate Isle of Crabs, the apprentice must navigate treacherous waters, eldritch forces, and a labyrinth of secrets. The island’s shadows conceal horrors older than memory, and the price of the treasure may be more than any mortal can bear. Who will claim the spoils—and at what cost?

Ver livro

Get ’em Young Treat ’em Tough...

Robin McLean

Dark, profane, and hilarious, yet ultimately humane, these ten stories are the latest and best of Robin McLean’s reports from the eternal battlefront that is the United States. 
Ranging across the continent, from Alaska to Missouri, from the flatlands to the mountains, each tale is a snapshot of the political, racial, and sexual undercurrents roiling contemporary life, and each finds a way into the nerves and blood that pulse beneath the question of how to live a decent life.Here you’ll find stolen children living life to the fullest on the run and on the road, soldiers guarding empty frontiers, and rugged individualists brought low by an uncaring nature. You’ll find prehistoric beasts rubbing talons with hustlers, as well as death machines lurking beneath the bucolic countryside. Here you’ll find hatred, friendship, and pitch-black humor all seething in the same stew.Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing marries the sardonic moral and political explorations of a Flannery O’Connor to the surreal, scuzzy wit of a Denis Johnson. It is a brazen State of the Union for a nation on the edge.

Ver livro