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Published Mar 2014
272 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
In this masterful debut, an award-winning writer and first-rate storyteller explores the tenuous bonds of family - fathers and sons, husbands and wives - as they are tested by the sometimes brutal power of love.
In each of the stories in this remarkable collection, David James Poissant delivers a moving portrayal of a relationship in turmoil. His strikingly true-to-life characters have reached a precipice, chased there by troubles of their own making. Some stand frightened, some ready to fight. Some seek atonement, others the atonement that is owed them. But, brought to the brink, each must make a choice: Leap, or look away? Lee Martin writes that Poissant forces us "to face the people we are when we're alone in the dark," and, from the two men racing to save the life of a sick alligator in "Lizard Man" to the girl helping her boyfriend face his greatest fears in "The End of Aaron," from a son grieving his father in "100% Cotton" as he stalks death on an Atlanta street corner to a brother's surprise at the surreal, improbable beauty of a late night encounter with a wolf, Poissant's invented worlds shine with honesty and dark complexity, but also with a profound compassion. These are stories hell-bent on hope.
Fresh, smart, lively - and often wickedly funny - The Heaven of Animals is breathtakingly original and compulsively readable. As bestselling author Kevin Wilson puts it, "Poissant is a writer who knows us with such clarity that we wonder how he found his way so easily into our hearts and souls."
"Starred Review. Rueful and kind, akin to both Anton Chekhov and Raymond Carver in humane spirit and technical mastery." - Kirkus
"There are some great moments - good bits of dialogue and interesting premises - but for the most part, the stories don't live up to their potential." - Publishers Weekly
"An engaging, well-crafted collection ... The author's deep caring for his characters surfaces in his compassionate attempts to unpack the perplexities of the human condition. Poissant's thoroughly realist style and tight storytelling will appeal to fans of Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and George Saunders." - Booklist
"The Heaven of Animals is an extraordinary debut from Florida author David James Poissant - a Venn diagram of the miraculous and the absurd. Like Flannery O'Connor, Poissant's stories are marked by violence, humor, and grace; like Saunders, Poissant can spoon-bend reality; like Carver and Diaz, he writes scenes soaked in kerosene and seconds from combustion.'" - Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize-finalist author of Swamplandia
"These stories lure the loners and romantics out of America's backwaters, then march them into the moonlight to break your heart." - Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn
"Wild as two men wrestling an alligator, tender as a father stretching out on the floor next to his sleeping son, the stories in The Heaven of Animals will make you stop and wonder. David James Poissant digs deep until he reaches the heart of each tale, unearthing unexpected connections with his vivid and graceful prose." - Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief
This information about The Heaven of Animals 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.
David James Poissant's stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Playboy, One Story, The Southern Review, Glimmer Train, and in the New Stories from the South and Best New American Voices anthologies. His writing has been awarded the Matt Clark Prize, the RopeWalk Fiction Chapbook Prize, the George Garrett Fiction Award, and the Alice White Reeves Memorial Award from the National Society of Arts & Letters, as well as awards from the Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, and Playboy. He teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida and lives in Orlando with his wife and daughters.
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