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Darkly funny stories by the man David Sedaris calls "the most outlandish and energetic writer I can think of."
Paddling down a remote, meandering river, Georgie's friend Otto decides to do something both spectacular and stupid: He scales a sandy cliff that rises from the water and runs down its steep face, preparing for a triumphant running dive. As his friends look on, they watch something awful unfold: Otto lands with an odd smack and knocks himself unconscious, blood spilling from his nose and mouth. Georgie arrives on the scene first and sees a small turtle, its shell cracked, floating just below the water's surface.
Otto and the turtle survive the collision, though both need help, and Georgie finds his compassions torn. This title story sets the tone for the rest of Arthur Bradford's Turtleface and Beyond, a strangely funny collection featuring prosthetically limbed lovers, a snakebitten hitchhiker turned wedding crasher, a lawyer at the end of his rope, a ménage à trois at Thailand's Resort Tik Tok, and a whole host of near disasters, narrow escapes, and complicated victories, all narrated by Georgie, who struggles with his poor decisions but finds redemption in the telling of each of his tales. Big-hearted and hilariously high-fueled, Turtleface and Beyond marks the return of a beloved and unforgettable voice in fiction.
"Starred Review. A jazzy, anarchic collection." - Kirkus
"With this delightful collection, Bradford maintains a finely calibrated comic tone on the edge of dark, which through some feat of magic remains buoyant and mirthful." - Publishers Weekly
"With bad choices and bizarre situations aplenty, Turtleface and Beyond encourages the reader simply to laugh at the strange turns life can take." - Booklist
This information about Turtleface and Beyond was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Karen Bradford
Arthur Bradford is an O Henry Award winning writer and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. His writing has appeared in Esquire, McSweeney's, Vice, Men's Journal, and many other publications. His first book, Dogwalker, was published by Knopf and Vintage paperback in 2002, and has been translated into ten languages. His latest book, Benny's Brigade, is a children's book, published by McSweeney's in Sept. 2012.
Bradford is also the creator and director of the acclaimed "How's Your News?" documentary series, versions of which have been broadcast on HBO/Cinemax, PBS, and Channel Four England. He developed the concept into a series for MTV which ran throughout 2009. A new film in the series, "Election 2012" was released Oct. 2012 and can be seen in full at howsyournews.com. In 2011 Bradford directed...
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