Description
WINNER OF EDGE HILL READERS CHOICE PRIZE 2021 'Taps into a deep and compelling strangeness with vigour and humour and heart... A disturbing and moving collection' Chris Power, author of Mothers In Paradise Block, mould grows as thick as fur along the walls, alarms ring out at unexpected hours and none of the neighbours are quite what they seem. A little girl boils endless eggs in her family's burnt-out flat, an isolated old woman entices a new friend with gifts of cutlery and cufflinks, and a young bride grows frustrated with her unappreciative husband, the caretaker of creaking, dilapidated Paradise Block. With a haunting sense of place and a keen eye for the absurd, these thirteen surreal stories lure us into a topsy-turvy world where fleatraps are more important than babies and sales calls for luxury coffins provide a welcome distraction. Lonely residents live in close proximity while longing for connection.
An irresistibly strange debut short story collection set in a crumbling tower block
About the Author
Alice Ash is a writer and maker. of short films. Her story 'Eggs' was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Prize 2019, and her writing has been featured in Hotel, 3:AM Magazine, the TLS and Extra Teeth, among others. She is based in Brighton. Find her on Twitter as @aliceash_.
Reviews
In these brilliant stories Alice Ash taps into a deep and compelling strangeness with vigour and humour and heart. This is a disturbing and moving collection, an unusual combination I'd like to encounter more often. "I cannot look away", one of her narrators remarks; that's how I felt, too. -- Chris Power, author * Mothers *
A collection to savour - strange, funny, touching; Paradise Block is bound to be one of the debuts of the year ... it's very good -- Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts
Searingly brilliant ... She is a witch with words. -- Emma Jane Unsworth
Alice Ash's writing gets right at the rot underneath the polish of things, picking out the gothic in the full light of day. ... These are dangerous stories of the best kind: treading the line between terror and delight. I couldn't peel my eyes off them. -- Livia Franchini, author * Shelf Life *
The best weird fiction holds up a fairground mirror to what we blithely call normal, reflecting a reality that warps and flickers. In Paradise Block, Alice Ash creates a world that is disturbingly Not. Restless and unsettling, these stories take a step sideways and away from the expected. Uneasy and deliciously wrong. -- Rosie Garland, author * The Palace of Curiosities *
A powerful testimony to the reality of life on the margins. Raw, bizarre, disturbing, funny and uncanny. -- Cathy Sweeney, author * Modern Times *
Engaging, funny and surprising in equal measure, these stories are the work of a wonderfully unconventional imagination -- Laura Kaye, author * English Animals *
This is not a green and pleasant land, but something much more prevalent, over-looked and deeply English. These stories depict difficult, often cash-poor characters, but they are respectfully written with such texture and poetry that they give voice to the thousands of lives that they echo. Eclectic, dark, moving and sometimes very funny. -- Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding
Lively, unerring, intimate and gorgeously grotesque! Sentences as satisfying as feeling the cool squish of silt between your toes. As you merrily connect the dots between crisscrossing lives, these stories will get under your skin & make themselves at home there. -- Gemma Reeves, author of Victoria Park
A matrix-like collection that reinvents the short story genre... the uneasy meshing of lives and stories is a reminder there is a strange poetry to co-existence. * Arts Desk *
An unconventional collection that treads the line between the disturbing and the delightful... These stories get under your skin. * The F Word *
Though dark, these stories are moving and funny, their stance on class and responsibility offering instances of bright clarity that turn the magnifying glass back onto the reader with a raised eyebrow ... read Paradise Block for a carnivalesque reflection of the world we live in. * Mslexia *
Brims with honesty, humanity and a strong sense of the absurd, frequently tipping over into surrealism and comedy as well as pathos ... inventive and energetic, Paradise Block is also moving, and the device of recurring characters is cleverly and coherently used * TLS *
Mesmerising ... Ash depicts these lives - and these impossible choices - with nuance and empathy ... The collection is made rich with these portraits of interior lives: characters' suffering brushes up against their pleasures, friendships, connections with one another * White Review *
Awards
Long-listed for Edge Hill Prize for the Short Story 2022 (UK).
Book Information
ISBN 9781788165556
Author Alice Ash
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Serpent's Tail
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 20mm
An irresistibly strange debut short story collection set in a crumbling tower block
About the Author
Alice Ash is a writer and maker. of short films. Her story 'Eggs' was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Prize 2019, and her writing has been featured in Hotel, 3:AM Magazine, the TLS and Extra Teeth, among others. She is based in Brighton. Find her on Twitter as @aliceash_.
Reviews
In these brilliant stories Alice Ash taps into a deep and compelling strangeness with vigour and humour and heart. This is a disturbing and moving collection, an unusual combination I'd like to encounter more often. "I cannot look away", one of her narrators remarks; that's how I felt, too. -- Chris Power, author * Mothers *
A collection to savour - strange, funny, touching; Paradise Block is bound to be one of the debuts of the year ... it's very good -- Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts
Searingly brilliant ... She is a witch with words. -- Emma Jane Unsworth
Alice Ash's writing gets right at the rot underneath the polish of things, picking out the gothic in the full light of day. ... These are dangerous stories of the best kind: treading the line between terror and delight. I couldn't peel my eyes off them. -- Livia Franchini, author * Shelf Life *
The best weird fiction holds up a fairground mirror to what we blithely call normal, reflecting a reality that warps and flickers. In Paradise Block, Alice Ash creates a world that is disturbingly Not. Restless and unsettling, these stories take a step sideways and away from the expected. Uneasy and deliciously wrong. -- Rosie Garland, author * The Palace of Curiosities *
A powerful testimony to the reality of life on the margins. Raw, bizarre, disturbing, funny and uncanny. -- Cathy Sweeney, author * Modern Times *
Engaging, funny and surprising in equal measure, these stories are the work of a wonderfully unconventional imagination -- Laura Kaye, author * English Animals *
This is not a green and pleasant land, but something much more prevalent, over-looked and deeply English. These stories depict difficult, often cash-poor characters, but they are respectfully written with such texture and poetry that they give voice to the thousands of lives that they echo. Eclectic, dark, moving and sometimes very funny. -- Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding
Lively, unerring, intimate and gorgeously grotesque! Sentences as satisfying as feeling the cool squish of silt between your toes. As you merrily connect the dots between crisscrossing lives, these stories will get under your skin & make themselves at home there. -- Gemma Reeves, author of Victoria Park
A matrix-like collection that reinvents the short story genre... the uneasy meshing of lives and stories is a reminder there is a strange poetry to co-existence. * Arts Desk *
An unconventional collection that treads the line between the disturbing and the delightful... These stories get under your skin. * The F Word *
Though dark, these stories are moving and funny, their stance on class and responsibility offering instances of bright clarity that turn the magnifying glass back onto the reader with a raised eyebrow ... read Paradise Block for a carnivalesque reflection of the world we live in. * Mslexia *
Brims with honesty, humanity and a strong sense of the absurd, frequently tipping over into surrealism and comedy as well as pathos ... inventive and energetic, Paradise Block is also moving, and the device of recurring characters is cleverly and coherently used * TLS *
Mesmerising ... Ash depicts these lives - and these impossible choices - with nuance and empathy ... The collection is made rich with these portraits of interior lives: characters' suffering brushes up against their pleasures, friendships, connections with one another * White Review *
Awards
Long-listed for Edge Hill Prize for the Short Story 2022 (UK).
Book Information
ISBN 9781788165556
Author Alice Ash
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Serpent's Tail
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 20mm
