Knockemstiff

Knockemstiff

Author: Donald Ray Pollock

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2008-03-18

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0385525400

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"More engaging than any new fiction in years." —Chuck Palahniuk An unforgettable work of fiction that peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents. Knockemstiff is a genuine entry into the literature of place. Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are irresistibly, undeniably real. A father pumps his son full of steroids so he can vicariously relive his days as a perpetual runner-up body builder. A psychotic rural recluse comes upon two siblings committing incest and feels compelled to take action. Donald Ray Pollock presents his characters and the sordid goings-on with a stern intelligence, a bracing absence of value judgments, and a refreshingly dark sense of bottom-dog humor.


Love on the Other Side - A Nagabe Short Story Collection

Love on the Other Side - A Nagabe Short Story Collection

Author: Nagabe

Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment

Published: 2020-06-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1648270115

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Love comes in many forms. A magnificent bird comforts a struggling girl; a vampire waltzes with a young lady at night; a blind girl lives with a monster of whom there is more than meets the eye. This six-story manga collection by masterful manga creator Nagabe explores fascinating relationships that refuse to be confined.


A Little Piece of Paradise

A Little Piece of Paradise

Author: T. A Williams

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-06-13

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1667204661

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In this story of romance and sisterhood, Sophie learns that the inheritance of a lifetime sometimes comes with a catch. When Sophie’s uncle leaves her a castle on the Italian Riviera in his will, she can’t believe her luck. The catch? She and her estranged sister, Rachel, must live there together for three months in order to inherit it. A cheating Italian ex soon learns of Sophie’s return and wants to rekindle their spark, but Sophie realizes that distance does make the heart grow fonder—for her friend back home, Chris, who becomes more to her than just a friend. But does he feel the same? This beautiful story is perfect for fans of Alex Brown and Lucy Coleman.


Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice:Penguin Specials

Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice:Penguin Specials

Author: Nam Le

Publisher: Penguin Group Australia

Published: 2012-04-23

Total Pages: 30

ISBN-13: 1742535798

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A young Vietnamese-Australian named Nam, in his final year at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, is trying to find his voice on the page. When his father, a man with a painful past, comes to visit, Nam's writing and sense of self are both deeply changed. Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice is a deeply moving story of identity, family and the wellsprings of creativity, from Nam Le's multi-award-winning collection The Boat. 'A tight and densely emotional journey that sucked me in and contained as much power as the lengthy title.' Killings, the Kill Your Darlings blog


This Time with Love

This Time with Love

Author: Kimberly Rae Jordan

Publisher:

Published: 2015-03-12

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 9780994074577

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Six years ago, a new found faith changed Anastacia Stapleton's perspective on her life and relationship. When the man she is living with refuses to consider marriage, she knows she has to end things with him. Realizing that she can't continue to live the way she has in the past, Ana runs away from LA and its temptations to the one place her boyfriend had said he'd never go. Minneapolis, Minnesota. As Ana Stapleton becomes Staci Moore, she feels secure in the life she has created for herself and the child she hadn't realized she carried when she left LA. Eric McKinley had abandoned the faith of his childhood when he was still in his teens, but after enduring a life-changing trauma, he finds himself once again turning to God. This change of heart prompts him to return to the family he'd become estranged from years ago. Though he thought he had put Ana Stapleton and his feelings for her firmly in his past, Eric realizes nothing could be further from the truth when he runs into her at a singles retreat over the New Year. Coming face to face with Eric and the emotions of their past relationship has Staci contemplating another disappearance-hopefully before he learns of the child she never told him about. Six years and many counseling sessions later, Staci knows that what she and Eric shared in the past had been anything but healthy. Even as she tries to resist his presence in her life, her heart is drawn to him once again. She can see the changes in Eric, but Staci is scared of reverting back into the person she'd been when they had been together. As Eric learns about the depth of pain Staci endured as a result of their relationship, he tries to make things right, but will it be enough to help her trust him again? Or will his role in her life never go beyond father to the child they share together?


WHORES FOR GLORIA

WHORES FOR GLORIA

Author: William T. Vollmann

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 2013-01-02

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 0307827720

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With his first three works of fiction—the novels You Bright and Risen Angels and The Ice-Shirt, and the collection The Rainbow Stories—William T. Vollmann announced himself as a writer of rare and ferocious talent, with critics comparing him to William Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, and T.C. Boyle. His new novel is the story of Jimmy, who has been deserted by his lover, a prostitute by the name of Gloria. In the despair of his loneliness, and his drunken grief, he reassembles Gloria’s presence out of whatever he can buy from the hookers on the street—the fragments of their lives and dreams, and locks of hair they are willing to share for a price. In his search for these snatches of intimacy he meets the hustlers, drunks, and prostitutes of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district: Candy, who beats her customers when they ask for it but refuses to let them call her a bitch; Snake, who pimps his wife; Nicole, whose job it is to give men AIDS; Jack, who shoots his woman’s earnings into his arm but still likes Chopin even though he doesn’t have a record player; and Gloria, who may or may not be a figment of Jimmy’s imagination. Vollmann writes with explosive power of the inner city, unflinching in the way he confronts the solitude of the homeless and unloved, the insulted and the injured of skid-row America. His exhilarating, high-voltage style and lyric language touch the heart and retrieve a jubilant integrity from the harsh struggles of his characters. Here is a world of harrowing truth, beautifully expressed by a writer of prodigious gifts.


Free Love And Other Stories

Free Love And Other Stories

Author: Ali Smith

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2015-08-18

Total Pages: 127

ISBN-13: 0349007969

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A teenage girl finds unexpected sexual freedom on a trip to Amsterdam. A woman trapped at a dinner party comes up against an ugly obsession. The stories in Free Love are about desire, memory, sexual ambiguity and the imagination. In the harsh light of dislocation, the people in them still find connections, words blowing in the street, love in unexpected places. Ali Smith shows how things come together and how they break apart. She disconcerts and affirms with the lightest touch, to make us love and live differently.


Jonny Lambert's Bear and Bird: Learn to Share

Jonny Lambert's Bear and Bird: Learn to Share

Author: Jonny Lambert

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 0744057736

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Journey through the forest with Huxley and Bluebird, and introduce your toddlers to the idea of friendship and sharing with others. Meet Huxley, the lovable and rather hungry bear. It is beginning to snow, which means it is almost time to hibernate. So Huxley, Bluebird, and their friends must set out to collect food to get them through the Winter. But Huxley is really hungry, and wants all the food to himself. Is there enough food for everyone? Follow Huxley and Bluebird on their adventure through the freezing forest to collect food for hibernation. With stunning illustrations by renowned artist Jonny Lambert, and an enchanting story, this picture book is perfect for adults and toddlers to share together. Huxley and the Bluebird teaches little ones vital life lessons about friendship and sharing with others, and gently introduces them to the idea of hibernation as well. So come and join the search with this magical bedtime story.


Out There

Out There

Author: Kate Folk

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2022-03-29

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0593231465

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A thrilling new voice in fiction injects the absurd into the everyday to present a startling vision of modern life, “[as] if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror” (Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad). “Stories so sharp and ingenious you may cut yourself on them while reading.”—Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in The New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection. Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.