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| Loners (Paperback - New) |
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Full blurb:
Murderers and serial killers, jilted lovers and outcasts, broken men and lost women.... Loners. Cutting across genres for more than 20 years, cult American writer Mark SaFranko has excelled in charting the life of the outsider. This collection includes eight of SaFranko's short stories, all shot through with his trademark - and eye-opening - realism.
New York Times bestselling crime author Seymour Shubin introduces the stories. Mark SaFranko's tales of loners will appeal to fans of Dan Fante and the first-person realism of SaFranko’s Max Zajack novels (Hating Olivia and Lounge Lizard). The spiralling effects of being an outsider have drawn comparisons to Harry Crews (The Gospel Singer) and Chester Himes (A Rage In Harlem).
Some of the stories will shock (‘Just Next Door’), some will thrill (‘Alley Night’), some will provoke thought (‘Life Change’) but all have the page-turning energy of writers such as Joe R. Lansdale (Mucho Mojo).
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First page first lines:
From ‘The Man in Unit 24’:
A fleeting glimpse, nothing more.
Of a man’s face, straight on, followed by the raptor-like outline of his profile. In the background a slate trimmed with a long series of uneven block letter and numbers, and the name of a county jail.
Amy Whitehall was waiting in line at the hardware store in Lunenberg to purchase a bag of nails when those stark images, piped in from an American television programme, flashed across the screen of the small color unit behind the counter.
She thought, There’s a resemblance.
Well – it had to be nothing more than a resemblance. People could resemble each other. Everybody looked at least a little like somebody else. That was one of the mysteries of the world.
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Category: Short story collection
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Author: Mark SaFranko
Zsolt Alapi in an interview for The Danforth Review asked Mark SaFranko:
ZA: Your writing is both dark and provocatively sexual. What’s your take on love and relationships?
SaFranko: Sexual attraction is a sort of madness that passes. The rest is very complicated. I don’t mean to be flippant here, but that about sums it up. Love and relationships are treacherous ground that any person of complexity never negotiates without extreme trepidation.
ZA: You said in an interview that you are interested in characters who are "in trouble," mostly with themselves. How does your fascination with obsession figure into this?
SaFranko: Obsession is a wonderful literary device. I think of a book like Of Human Bondage, probably the best novel of sexual obsession ever written, and how once it hooks you, you can’t put it down. If readability is a literary virtue, this is a good thing. Being an obsessive type myself, it’s natural territory for me.
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Publisher: Murder Slim Press
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Reviews:
“…a provocative, dangerous, and wonderful read. SaFranko is at his gritty best here, laying down some of the best character-driven fiction… Loners can be read by the average reader who will find pleasure in its plot and intricate characters. At the same time, the glimpses into human longing and the complexity of his characters will satisfy an academic raised on Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Sartre. Reading SaFranko’s stories will make you want to dust off your favourite literature and remind you why you fell in love with the power of words in the first place. The horror and the beauty in these stories will haunt you long after you have turned the last page.” – Zsolt Alapi at The Danforth Review.
""Loners" -- a word that conveys many different emotions and situations -- is a collection of brilliant short stories that had me twisting inwardly as I read them. What's more they are stories that defy classification, that cannot be enclosed within a genre. The best description might be "American Realism," though that doesn't cover it either... Go ahead and read these stories. In case you missed my point: they are magnificent." - Seymour Shubin, author of Anyone’s My Name from the introduction to Loners.
“… every tale is a minor classic, undeniable proof of the author’s mastery of the often neglected short story genre. From the very first story… the author has the reader on tenterhooks, turning each page with their heart in their mouth… leading them down chilling dead ends and false turnings, but ultimately to thrilling climaxes. Loners is probably the best collection of short stories to be published this year.” - Joseph Ridgwell, author of 'Where are the rebels?' at The Beat.
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| Book code: BTD022 |
| Price: GBP £ 9.95 |
| USD $ 16.50 |
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