Description
Book SynopsisTen speculative fiction tales in which the author impersonates a virtuoso ring master, pulling up the curtain on a series of players who yearn, shock, succor, and entertain. Mermaids twine tails around foul-mouthed oil executives; wounded children forge their own magical salvation; a cup of tea on Bell Island is a conduit to another planet; a hiking trail leads to the end of the world, and beyond. Hilarious, moving, and dazzling by turns, this speculative fiction collection from one of Newfoundland's most idiosyncratic writers will seduce you with raw wisdom, befriend you with wry wit, and stay with you.
Trade Review“Kate Story is a marvel. The stories in
Ferry Back the Gifts will whisk you around corners you little suspected were there, revealing people and places and perspectives as captivating as they are beguiling. From shadows of the end times in Newfoundland to benign apparitions on Vancouver Island, Story obliges as capable and brilliant guide, manoeuvring equally well through both the fanciful and her generous sense of what it means to be human. With
Ferry Back the Gifts, Story has assembled a collection to be relished.” —Joe Davies, internationally-celebrated short story writer
“Kate Story is a talent and a delight. In her collection,
Ferry Back the Gifts, each story captures full, unforgettable lives. From stories involving camping, hiking and hallucinogenic hitchhiking trips, to elementary school memories involving Saucy dolls, essays on unicorns, a mother who is a witch and Martian alien invaders, Story’s collection invokes folk tales and life histories, all tied up in the strange realities of ordinary life. You get the sense that she is watching her characters as they expand before her, and then, lucky for the reader, presenting them on a platter, making for a collection that is definitely unputdownable and wickedly fun.” —Michelle Berry, award-winning author of
The Prisoner and Chaplain and
Everything Turns Away “Kate Story’s writing is inventive, rich with ideas that will make your head spin. She combines this imagination with keen insight into human nature and insider knowledge of the world of the stage. The resulting stories are rich pageants, tying the comforting to the unsettling and the familiar to the bizarre.” —A.M. Dellamonica, author of the Aurora Award-winning Hidden Sea Tales Trilogy
Table of Contents
- Anniversary
- Animate
- Flame Retarded
- Where the Seas Roll Up Their Thunder
- Demoted
- Show and Tell
- Martinis, My Dear, Are Dangerous
- Unicorn
- Ferry Back the Gifts
- The Ghost of the Cherry Blossom
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
