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The Old World Cary Fagan Imprint: House of Anansi / Format: Paper / publication date: February 2017 / 300 pages / ISBN: 978-1487001469 / Price: $19.95 These thirty-five brief stories and the found photographs that inspired them are by turns realistic and surreal, bloody and tender, delightful and appalling. Award-winning author Cary Fagan has created a mesmerizing series of narrative tales, giving readers a vivid peek into lives of strangers. A man hangs onto a runaway horse. A woman paints in the nude. A shop window advertising a sale on blankets hides much more behind it. A lone tombstone on a hill speaks of a years-long feud. The stories capturing portraits, objects, moments in time while dizzyingly varied, form a single image that, in the words of the author, “belong to one history, found in an album that might belong to any of us.” Deftly marrying vision and language with memory and imagination, Fagan paints an intimate portrait of forgotten lives that is profound, generous, and highly entertaining.
“What a dazzlingly imaginative thing to do Cary Fagan has taken a group of orphaned photographs from the past and turned them into a cabinet of wonders! Inventive, satisfying, and deft, The Old World gets right to the heart of the storytelling craft.” “Charming, funny, and sad.” National Post “This is Fagan at the top of his game.” The Canadian Jewish News “A remarkable collection.” Maple Tree Literary Supplement “A series of enchanting short stories of astonishing breadth. Readers will be transported and wish for more.” Publishers Weekly |