Series

Name: Salt Modern Stories Number: 4

Synopsis

Howell’s much-celebrated stories interweave elements of the commonplace with darkness, subterfuge and sheer weirdness, all realised with natural narrative flair. In this striking new collection, we see Howell explore a wide range of cultures, including Hawaii, Portugal and Japan, alongside these are period tales, and sinister and sexual encounters, all related with a cool eye for our desires and obsessions.

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Reviews of this Book

‘Brian Howell’s latest collection of short stories, The Man Who Loved Kuras and Other Stories (Salt, 2022), is wonderfully weird. What can be done in a short story, which is much harder to sustain over the length of an entire novel, is to explore feelings and situations that are off-kilter, at odds with the norm. These are narratives that push the boundaries of acceptance and conjure feelings of uneasiness, sometimes even repulsion, but that also challenge views on how people choose, or are forced, to live. Bearing in mind these elements, I feel The Man Who Loved Kuras and Other Stories, although not for everyone, is not only wonderfully weird, but also weirdly wonderful.’ —Laura Besley, Everybody’s Reviewing

Praise for Previous Work

‘Throughout the novel we get glimpses into the power of art to create illusion and beauty. We see famous artists struggle with new inventions and ideas. Howell makes the characters real through his mesmerizing writing style. This novel is not only a must read for art lovers and the historically inclined, but for any reader who enjoys a fast paced story that takes them below the surface of appearances.’ —The Richmond Review

‘Howell’s writing, by turns powerful, chilling and touching, makes demands of the reader.’ —Nels Stanley, The British Fantasy Society

‘Howell’s “Stories of Modern Japan” are wonderfully odd …’ —Nicholas Royle, Time Out

‘…always disturbing, Howell builds up a montage of modern Japanese culture by splicing images and narratives of salarymen and housewives against an infringing backdrop of pornography: the repressed, the depressed and the undressed.’ —Toby Lichtig, The London Magazine

‘This enormously accomplished novel…’ —Nicholas Royle, Time Out

‘…Howell cleverly throws up a host of questions about artistic production…’ —Toby Lichtig, The London Magazine

‘The Dance of Geometry is a fascinating book for lovers of art and literature alike. Scrupulous research and thoughtful historical referencing help to evoke 17th century Holland with an invigorating clarity.’ —Toby Lichtig, The London Magazine

‘Howell’s novel investigates authorship in a manner rather reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller.’ —Toby Lichtig, The London Magazine

‘finely wrought depictions of Delft and of Vermeer’s family’ —Trudi E. Jacobson, The Historical Novel Society

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New Books 2022

Eastmouth and Other Stories

The Man Who Loved Kuras and Other Stories

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