The Pier Falls: And Other Stories

The Pier Falls: And Other Stories

From Mark Haddon, author ofÂ The CuriousÂ Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,Â A Spot of Bother, and The Red House, nine dazzling stories diverse in style but united in emotional power

The tales in Mark Haddonâ€™s lyrical and uncompromising new collection take many formsâ€”Victorian adventure story, science fiction, morality tale, contemporary realismâ€”but they all showcase his virtuoso gifts as a stylist and the deep well of empathy that made his three bestselling novels so compelling.
Â Â Â 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 titleÂ story, an unnamed narrator describes with coolÂ precision a catastrophe that strikes a seaside town, both tearing lives apart and bringing them together.Â
Â Â Â In the prizewinning story â€œThe Gun,â€ a boyâ€™s life is marked by the afternoon he encounters a semiautomatic pistol belonging to his friendâ€™s older brother; in â€œThe Island,â€ a GreekÂ princess is abandoned on an island by her abductor; in â€œThe Boys Who Left Home to LearnÂ Fear,â€ a group of adventurers travel deep intoÂ the Amazonian jungle but discover the gravest danger lurking among their own number; and in â€œThe Woodpecker and the Wolf,â€ a woman wonders whether she has chosen toÂ travel to Mars only to escape the entanglementÂ of human relationships back here on Earth.
Â Â Â Drawing inventively from history, myth, folktales, and modern life, The Pier Falls showcases Haddonâ€™s immense gifts of invention and penetrating insight.

From the Hardcover edition.

Country	USA
Author	Mark Haddon
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9780385540766
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Doubleday
Manufacturer	Doubleday
NumberOfPages	322
PublicationDate	2016-05-10
Publisher	Doubleday
ReleaseDate	2016-05-10
Studio	Doubleday

The Pier Falls: And Other Stories

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