BOOKS FROM CANADAThe Swan Suit
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Set in Canada
Female author
Description:
Yearn for a life of celibacy? Why not try sealing each of your orifices one by one with silicon caulk from the hardware store until your randy husband gets the message and turns into a tree? This is a totally reasonable chain of events--if you're a character in one of Katherine Fawcett's dark, quirky stories. Blending banalities of everyday human dilemmas and routines with elements of fairy tales, magic, the macabre or the downright inventive, Fawcett's fiction is anything but predictable. One of the three little pigs launches a line of high-end, easy-to-prepare, wolf broth-based meals. The Devil is on a mission to steal a child's soul, but is distracted when he develops a massive crush on the day-care worker. A man stands in the shower contemplating his future when he discovers tiny mushrooms growing in his body's various nooks and crannies. Fawcett's wry humour and prodigious imagination make for an addictive mix. The weird becomes normal, and the normal, fascinating. In this collection, reimagined folktales appear alongside stories entirely new, serving to both defamiliarize us from the undeniably odd tales we continue to pass down generation after generation, and to lend a vague familiarity to the stories of Fawcett's invention. In her hilariously matter-of-fact style, Fawcett subverts all expectations and her narrative skill makes this collection a must-read for any lover of short fiction.
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