Book description
In evading an ingratiating unofficial guide, a hapless backpacker
seals his fate. A woman undertakes a pilgrimage to where her boyfriend
died with another girl. A young man abroad resists returning home for
crucial medical treatment. A summer worker is drawn into a menage a
trois with a colleague and his boss. From the scorched hillsides of
Morocco and heat of a Californian summer to the ferocity of the
Spanish afternoon and discomfort of a Scottish heatwave, Wayne Price's
characters sweat under the glare of both the sun and their author's
forensic gaze. Long-listed for the renowned Frank O'Connor
International Short Story Award.
'Wayne Price is a natural - one of those writers destined to be so
from their arrival in the world. He has a natural understanding of
people (what divides and what connects), and a natural ear for how they
speak. This is a terrific debut collection of short stories, only
proving how complete an author he already is.' Ronald Frame, author of
The Lantern Bearers, Permanent Violet and Bluette Wayne Price celebrates
ordinary lives where people can find themselves trapped in a confused
and often terrifying present. These carefully constructed, honest
stories capture a moment or event that will reverberate, revealing the
ways dignity and stoicism help those who do not see themselves as
victims endure feelings they are unable to describe or understand. They
also herald a significant new arrival. Carl MacDougall, author of The
Devil and The Giro, The Lights Below and The Casanova Papers 'These
keenly observed stories probe fatherhood, sexuality, displacement and
the unfathomable strangeness of the other, offering no easy solutions.
Many are resolved with a Zen-like pulling away from the foreground
action to contemplate a broader natural order or to reach for a
universal, resonant image... And they always linger in the mind long
after reading.' Brian McCabe, author of The Other McCoy, A Date with My
Wife and Zero Wayne Price was born in south Wales in 1965 and has
lived and worked in Scotland since 1987. He has won many international
prizes for his short stories and poetry and his work has been widely
published in anthologies and journals including The Bridport Prize
Anthology, Stand Magazine, Carve Magazine, Edinburgh Review and Gutter.
He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of
Aberdeen.
