{"title":"Carys Davies","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"some-new-ambush-9781844713417","title":"Some New Ambush","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2009 Roland Mathias Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2009 Calvino Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the 2008 International Frank O’Connor Short Story Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the 2008 Wales Book of the Year: Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the award-winning author of \u003cem\u003eWest\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Mission House\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSome New Ambush\u003c\/em\u003e is the first collection of short stories from award-winning writer Carys Davies. Love, loss, birth, death, betrayal, madness – they all lie in wait for Davies’s characters in their startlingly different worlds: a dry cleaner’s shop in contemporary Chicago, a mining town in South Wales in the sixties, a lunatic asylum in nineteenth century northern England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShot through with wit and aching emotional poignancy, these stories tell of how we attempt to confront the things life throws in our path – often when we least expect them, and in places where we never thought to look. They tell of the mistakes we make along the way, and of how we try to deal with the whole difficult, unpredictable business.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is the boy who steps into his best friend’s clothes in a desperate bid to fulfil his dreams, the man who comes up with an amazing new invention to win the heart of the woman he loves, the bored young wife doomed to live on an island where everything is red, the middle-aged woman who finds a baby in the sand and passes it off as her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for This Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Carys Davies is a gifted writer. A true original. Her magical yet weirdly believable stories transport you in a breath into other lives and worlds, without a word wasted. Full of surprises.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMaggie Gee\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘On “Hwang”: A perfectly judged moment of comedy ... I laughed out loud at the same point every time I read it.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLynne Truss\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Stealthily clever stories, pricked with menace.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSue Gee \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of This Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The 15 pieces in Carys Davies’s darkly funny and unsettling collection usually begin with “quite small things”, only to edge gently into an emotional abyss in dank Welsh towns, airless Victorian parlours or mouldering libraries. The half-hidden passions of “Ugly Sister” could be a lost slice of Dylan Thomas, while the ousted Latin teacher of “Historia Calamatitum Mearum” has an Atwood-esque prickly wit that surfaces elsewhere. Arrivals and departures often trigger crises – but then, as “Metamorphosis” puts it, “Take-off and landing are the most dangerous times”’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBoyd Tonkin\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003ccite\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘The stories move seamlessly between the familiar and the surreal, between reality and fantasy, sanity and madness ... The attention is focused as through a magnifying glass and we are hooked, drawn into an imaginary world of which we wish to know more ... her spare, concise, clear style is ideally suited to a genre in which every word must earn its keep.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eHazel Watson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003ccite\u003eBook Club Reviews – Bromley local meeting\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘I simply adored \u003cem\u003eSome New Ambush\u003c\/em\u003e.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSimon Savidge\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003ccite\u003eSavidge Reads\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Each story is, as you’d hope from the title, a new ambush (this is true of the second collection as well). You never know where you will end up. By the third story, I had that quivering sense I get when I read good crime fiction, alert for every clue. Only once did I guess the ending. This is intensely exhilarating as a reader and a writer.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eJackie Morris\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003ccite\u003eJust Waving\u003c\/cite\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carys Davies","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892797953,"sku":"9781844713417","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/files\/9781844713417.jpg?v=1759315885"},{"product_id":"the-redemption-of-galen-pike-9781907773716","title":"The Redemption of Galen Pike","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSynopsis\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2015 International Frank O’Connor Short Story Award\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2015 Wales Book of the Year: Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShortlisted for the 2015 Edge Hill Short Story Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Globe 100: The Best International Fiction of 2017\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a remote Australian settlement a young wife with an untellable secret reluctantly invites her neighbour into her home. A Quaker spinster offers companionship to a condemned man in a Colorado jail. In the ice and snows of Siberia an office employee from Birmingham witnesses a scene that will change her life. At a jubilee celebration in a northern English town a middle-aged alderman opens his heart to Queen Victoria. A teenage daughter leaves home in search of adventure. High in the Cumbrian fells a woman seeks help from her father’s enemy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpare, precise, charged with a prickly wit, the stories in Carys Davies’s sparkling second collection remind us how little we know of the lives of others.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A true original. Her magical yet weirdly believable stories transport you in a breath into other lives and worlds, without a word wasted. Full of surprises.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMaggie Gee\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘A writer willing to tackle the hardest of all fictional forms – the short story. This is a region in which so many fail … Carys understands the attention and respect that must be paid to the form … she can keep her literary powder dry, so to speak, until the end of a story, and she can do what it is essential to do in this form, create a micro-world, which has reverberations beyond its size and scope, which is metaphysical.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Hall\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘on \u003cem\u003eSome New Ambush\u003c\/em\u003e: Darkly funny and unsettling.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eBoyd Tonkin\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Like Chekhov’s great stories Davies’ stories are deceptively simple. They reward re-reading not by resolving the core mystery, but by revealing layers of meaning and complexity’ —\u003cstrong\u003eLadette Randolph, editor-in-chief of Ploughshares and 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award judge\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReviews of this Book\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Extraordinarily powerful’ —\u003cstrong\u003eVS Pritchett Prize judges Jane Gardam, Penelope Lively and Jacob Ross on The Redemption of Galen Pike\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This story of brutal murder and rough justice in the American Wild West carried a real punch. As if Mark Twain and Annie Proulx had sat down at a desk together. But an original voice too. I shall be looking out for more.’ —\u003cstrong\u003ePiers Plowright\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Karen E Bender, Carys Davies, Tony Earley, Kirsty Gunn and Alejandro Zambra on shortlist for world’s richest short story prize … Jennifer Hamilton-Emery of Salt Publishing said: “We were completely bowled over when we heard the news that Carys Davies’ book, The Redemption of Galen Pike, had been shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor prize. It is, without doubt, the world’s most prestigious prize for short stories and to have a book placed up there with the best collections internationally is something we’ve dreamt of for many years. We are delighted for Carys, it is a fantastic achievement, and delighted too that her book has received such recognition.”’ —\u003cstrong\u003eMartin Doyle\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Outstanding…perfectly distilled, intense…exquisite.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Yorkshire Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Confirms beyond doubt her position among the finest British exponents of a particularly challenging form.’ —\u003cem\u003eThe Irish Examiner\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This delicate, magical collection won the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Stories and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and it’s easy to see why. They are precise but full of beautifully observed details that fill compact vignettes with incident and emotion.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eCharlotte Heathcote\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This book is so wonderful! It’s fantastic.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSarah Jessica Parker\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eRead It Forward!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Her collection, \u003cem\u003eThe Redemption of Galen Pike\u003c\/em\u003e, is published by the small UK independent press Salt. Its subjects span the world, with stories set everywhere from a remote Australian settlement, where a young wife has a secret, to a Colorado jail, where a Quaker woman meets a condemned man in his final hours in the title story.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eAlison Flood\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘One of the things that I loved so much about \u003cem\u003eThe Redemption of Galen Pike\u003c\/em\u003e is one of the things that makes it incredibly difficult to write about – the scope of these stories in both time and place are epic… It is simply a stunning collection of stories.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eSimon Savidge\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSavidge Reads\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘This sophisticated collection observes that everyone contains multitudes, and people’s darkest corners are what make them interesting. The book never falters in its delicate touch and confident, nuanced observations about the human condition.’ —\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘It’s little wonder that Davies was winner of the 2015 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, a prize previously given to the likes of Yiyun Li, Jhumpa Lahiri, Haruki Murakami and Edna O’Brien. The Redemption of Galen Pike is a stunning achievement, and Carys Davies a writer to celebrate.’ —\u003cstrong\u003eStephen Finucan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Star\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carys Davies","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":3892798017,"sku":"9781907773716","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0851\/7222\/products\/9781844719945_f33b531a-fc0c-4bcd-bca5-bfa82c0a678c.jpg?v=1661341658"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.saltpublishing.com\/collections\/carys-davies.oembed","provider":"Salt","version":"1.0","type":"link"}