Cities in the Sea
Stories that explore the unstable, dangerous world beneath the calm surface of everyday existence
Description
In Cities in the Sea, Maura Stanton taps into the mysterious force of the fairy tale, with its fantastic images and magical narrative patterns. Her stories blur the boundaries between fairy tale and verité, and comment on the art of storytelling. A range of characters—from a business man to a pianist, from a county coroner to a hardware store clerk, from a Greek immigrant to a Danish artist—come to discover that the past is a ruined kingdom, lost forever, but still a place to visit in wish, dream, and memory. Throughout her stories, Stanton attempts to wrest a deeper pattern, full of humor and wonder, out of the disturbing events of contemporary life.
Maura Stanton's previous books include the novel Molly Companion and the story collections The Country I Come From and Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling. Stanton is the recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets award and a two-time winner of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Indiana University.
Reviews
". . . triumphantly scales the walls between reality, fantasy and imagination. This may be the best book I've read in years. Stanton links the eight short stories using the psychological drama that we humans play out in our minds as we examine our past, comparing it to our present."
- Avon Waters, Herald Bulletin (Anderson, Indiana)
"The ten stories in the Stanton collection are short, artfully composed, and appealingly readable. . . . [An] eerie and compelling book."
- Andrew Wright, Michigan Quarterly Review