Despair: And Other Stories

Review “[Alexis’s] stories are thoughtful, lyrical and formally ingenious.”—Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review“Alexis combines a formal style, fantastic narratives and a sensualist’s world view to convey the subtle textures of grief, desire and love while at the same time spinning some very entertaining tales.”—Bliss Broyard, The Washington Post Book World“Like Nicholson Baker, Alain de Botton or the late Donald Barthelme, Alexis is a proponent of blatant, lively artifice in fiction. His prose is by turns playful, creepy and surreal.”—Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times“The sliver of fear a reader feels is testimony to the fact that Alexis crosses some line between storytelling and incantation, in which the teller implicates the reader in the weaving of his spells.”—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review Product Description The exquisitely crafted, haunting story collection from theaward-winning author of Childhood. Following on the heels of his award-winning first novel, Childhood, André Alexis's story collection, Despair, offers further proof of his brilliance and showcases his talent for spinning disturbing but elegant tales.Emerging from the landscapes and folklores of Trinidad and Canada, Despair reveals a world both recognizable and shockingly strange. A failed artist with beautiful hands is driven by a fetish for injuries in "The Third Terrace." While on an excursion to a bakery, a man wrestles with his capacity for evil deeds in "The Metaphysics of Morals." In "The Night Piece," a boy is haunted by a story about a soucouyant, a vampire in the guise of an old woman. In these eight beautifully crafted stories, shimmering with malevolence and longing, Alexis has fashioned an underworld and limned it with light. About the Author André Alexis was born in Trinidad in 1957 and grew up in Canada. His first novel was Childhood. Alexis lives in Toronto. From The Washington Post "...combines a formal style, fantastic narratives and a sensualist's worldview to convey the subtle textures of grief, desire and love...