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Published Sep 2007
256 pages
Genre: Essays
Publication Information
Michel Faber is not only a master storyteller but a daring innovator as well. Here are the pitch-perfect prose, indelible characterizations, and deep empathy for which he has been highly acclaimed. Here also is a satirical streak that depicts individuals at uncanny and all-too-familiar turning points in their lives. The alienated find sanctuary in The Safehouse, their histories and diagnoses written like endless ads on their T-shirts. In Andy Comes Back, a man awakens after a five-year coma, only to flee his home. In The Eyes of the Soul, perpetual televised beauty replaces the derelict view from a suburban picture window. In Finesse, a dictator holds his surgeon’s family hostage to the outcome of a risky operation. These sixteen stories move from unspeakable sadness through moments of exquisitely distilled happiness.
""Freakish and deeply satisfying. Faber's elaborately imagined stories often end at a moment of tension or ambivalence, underscoring his characters' fragility and giving the book an uncanny coherence." - PW.
"Eccentrics, misfits, sociopaths and outright criminals populate the cosmopolitan (Dutch-born, now Scottish) author's sleek, disturbing, gruesomely funny short stories." - Kirkus.
"Expertly crafted short fiction." - Booklist.
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Photo credit: Eva Youren
Michel Faber is considered Dutch in the Netherlands, which is where he was born; Australian in Australia, because he lived there for so long; and Scottish in Scotland, where he emigrated with his wife and family in 2003. To say this award-winning writer is revered is an understatement.
Born in 1960 in The Hague, Faber studied Dutch, Philosophy, Rhetoric, and English Language at Melbourne University. After graduating in 1980 he took various jobs such as a cleaner, pickle packer and guinea pig for medical research until he decided to train as a nurse in Sydney. He practiced nursing until 1993 when he and his family moved to Scotland. It was there that his wife encouraged him to submit his writing – a practice that he had engaged in since he was about fourteen ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Name Pronunciation
Michel Faber: Mih-shell Fay-ber
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