The Pier Falls

Description

The first collection of stories from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The first collection of stories from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Porpoise. 'Terrifically compelling' Guardian A seaside pier collapses. An expedition to Mars goes terribly wrong. A thirty-stone man is confined to his living room. One woman is abandoned on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. Another woman is saved from drowning. Two boys discover a gun in a shoebox. A group of explorers find a cave of unimaginable size deep in the Amazon jungle. A man shoots a stranger in the chest on Christmas Eve. 'The real redemption in these superbly gripping stories comes from their canny human detail, and the vivid, unsettling clarity they bring to our lives' Sunday Times

Mark Haddon is a writer and artist. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, was published simultaneously by Jonathan Cape and David Fickling in 2003. It won seventeen literary prizes, including the Whitbread Award. In 2012, a stage adaptation by Simon Stephens was produced by the National Theatre and went on to win 7 Olivier Awards in 2013 and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. In 2005 his poetry collection, The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea, was published by Picador, and his play, Polar Bears, was produced by the Donmar Warehouse in 2010. His most recent novel, The Red House, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2012. The Pier Falls, a collection of short stories, was also published by Cape in 2016. To commemorate the centenary of the Hogarth Press he wrote and illustrated a short story that appeared alongside Virginia Woolf's first story for the press in Two Stories (Hogarth, 2017).

A superb collection of stand-out stories... The Pier Falls is unique in that every story is brilliant... It is, simply, and ultimately, an absolute pleasure to read * Irish Independent * This is a top-notch collection... It veers into unexpected territory, and the evolving surprises are mesmerizing... 'The Pier Falls' leads the collection. It is a perfectly controlled little masterpiece... So chilling that one imagines its author could carve out a second career as a horror film scriptwriter. -- Lionel Shriver * Financial Times * Brilliant collection... Seamless prose... It feels as though Haddon is leading you into the deepest underworld of human endeavor and behavior, yet holding your hand gently as he guides you into the labyrinth. Outstanding. -- Imogen Lycett Green * Daily Mail * The real redemption in these superbly gripping stories comes from their canny human detail, and the vivid, unsettling clarity they bring to our brief lives. -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times * He writes with the craft of Julian Barnes or, even, Truman Capote. -- Andrew Billen * The Times *