Falling from Trees

Falling from Trees is a collection of tales in the tradition of Italo Calvino,Jorges Borges, Stanislaw Lem and even Philip K. Dick.\nAnd while coming from the speculative tale tradition Falling fromTrees strikes out new territory in exploring consciousness, identity,and the human condition. More than just embodying ideas, these stories arewritten with heart and longing. And humor.\nThe stories are at once playful and deeply serious. There is delight in readingthem.\n"Falling from Trees is a collection of otherworldly tales fromFiorito. This set of loosely connected stories touches on a wide range oftimely and universal topics via science-fictional elements...readers willlargely find it entertaining. The stories run the gamut from fully realizedworks to quick, slice-of-life glimpses of characters...an often engaging shortstory cycle."
-Kirkus Reviews"Fiorito's prose is magical, evocative, mesmerizing."-New York Journal of Books
Fiorito's Falling from Trees is a collection of short storiesthat revolve around one theme - the relationship with the other, with what's 'different ' and troubles our balance. But it is precisely this 'diversity' thatsaves us because what apparently separates us is what unites us. The importantthing is to know, as one of the protagonists says, that ′′ everything isrelative ", even the distance between Earth and other planets. Fioritouses a surreal and dream style to outline his characters, children who drawalone and see ′′ the immortality of yellow", or aliens that bring specialgifts to humanity: first and foremost, the meaning of life. And so, thanks totheir gifts, all of us finally ′′ have a purpose ′′ and discover ′′ that theuniverse is made of music."
-Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, Author of The Woman Outlaw\n"There is something magical about a well-written short story.Past masters of the genre such as Jorge Borges, Italo Calvino, Lafcadio Hearneand Henry James manage, in a few short pages, to instill in the reader a senseof wonderment, intrigue and mystery. The really great stories do not alwaysneed a twist ending to make their impact. Creating a sense of unease orplanting an idea that makes the reader look at the normal and mundane in adifferent way is sufficient.\nIn his anthology Falling from Trees Mike Fiorito achievesall of these things. In many of his stories he places his protagonists inlocations of total normality; a man waking up late at night and deciding to gofor a walk, a chance meeting with an old teacher at a religious shrine orfalling in love with a work associate. But all of these situations containwithin them, lurking just below the surface, a magical world of highstrangeness just waiting to erupt. In others he starts the narrative from alocation of high strangeness and has the mundane and the predictable break through.He then has a third variety, a series of vaguely linked stories involving themysterious entity known simply as "Smith". We never really discoverwho, or what Smith is, but our own imagination is allowed to fill in thedetails.\nI thoroughly enjoyed these stories. So much so that as soon as Ihad finished them, I read them again. I suspect I will be returning to thisshort volume of gems many times in the future, and each time they will shineever brighter.'
-Anthony Peake, Author of The Hidden Universe\n"Fiorito is an accomplished writer, and in this collection of short stories hecreates a series of intriguing vignettes, which together make up far more thanthe sum of their parts. The atmospheres conjured up stay with you long afterreading, by turns wistful, illogical, and deeply human. A diverting book with aunique flavor."
-Nikki Wyrd, Editor of the Psychedelic Press Journal