Paradise Block
Home > Fiction and Literature > Fiction: general and literary > MODERN & contemporary fiction > Paradise Block
Paradise Block

Paradise Block


     0     
5
4
3
2
1



International Edition


X
About the Book

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE** '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.

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. @alice__ash

Review :
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. 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. Searingly brilliant ... She is a witch with words. This debut collection brims with honesty, humanity and a strong sense of the absurd ... inventive and energetic A chorus of voices, an inventory of lives lived, relics formed from both joy and hardship... Mesmerising A powerful testimony to the reality of life on the margins. Raw, bizarre, disturbing, funny and uncanny. 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. Engaging, funny and surprising in equal measure, these stories are the work of a wonderfully unconventional imagination A collection to savour - strange, funny, touching; Paradise Block is bound to be one of the debuts of the year ... it's very good 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. 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. 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. An unconventional collection that treads the line between the disturbing and the delightful... These stories get under your skin. 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. Alice Ash shows such a knack for melding the mad with the mundane that it is hard to believe that this is her debut collection ... When some of the more prominent players in the individual stories turn up in another narrative, Ash does a superb job of making those connections real and helping us to see her characters from a whole host of angles... urgent and involving Dark, compelling imagination ... This is a writer to look out for


Best Sellers


Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9781788165549
  • Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
  • Publisher Imprint: Serpent's Tail
  • Height: 200 mm
  • No of Pages: 240
  • Weight: 300 gr
  • ISBN-10: 1788165543
  • Publisher Date: 04 Feb 2021
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Language: English
  • Spine Width: 26 mm
  • Width: 134 mm


Similar Products

Add Photo
Add Photo

Customer Reviews

REVIEWS      0     
Click Here To Be The First to Review this Product
Paradise Block
Profile Books Ltd -
Paradise Block
Writing guidlines
We want to publish your review, so please:
  • keep your review on the product. Review's that defame author's character will be rejected.
  • Keep your review focused on the product.
  • Avoid writing about customer service. contact us instead if you have issue requiring immediate attention.
  • Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
  • Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

Paradise Block

Required fields are marked with *

Review Title*
Review
    Add Photo Add up to 6 photos
    Would you recommend this product to a friend?
    Tag this Book Read more
    Does your review contain spoilers?
    What type of reader best describes you?
    I agree to the terms & conditions
    You may receive emails regarding this submission. Any emails will include the ability to opt-out of future communications.

    CUSTOMER RATINGS AND REVIEWS AND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TERMS OF USE

    These Terms of Use govern your conduct associated with the Customer Ratings and Reviews and/or Questions and Answers service offered by Bookswagon (the "CRR Service").


    By submitting any content to Bookswagon, you guarantee that:
    • You are the sole author and owner of the intellectual property rights in the content;
    • All "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
    • All content that you post is accurate;
    • You are at least 13 years old;
    • Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.
    You further agree that you may not submit any content:
    • That is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
    • That infringes any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
    • That violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
    • That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
    • For which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any unapproved third party;
    • That includes any information that references other websites, addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers;
    • That contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
    You agree to indemnify and hold Bookswagon (and its officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, employees and third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.), harmless from all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of a breach of your representations and warranties set forth above, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.


    For any content that you submit, you grant Bookswagon a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell, transfer, and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Additionally,  Bookswagon may transfer or share any personal information that you submit with its third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc. in accordance with  Privacy Policy


    All content that you submit may be used at Bookswagon's sole discretion. Bookswagon reserves the right to change, condense, withhold publication, remove or delete any content on Bookswagon's website that Bookswagon deems, in its sole discretion, to violate the content guidelines or any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Bookswagon does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through Bookswagon to edit or delete any content you have submitted. Ratings and written comments are generally posted within two to four business days. However, Bookswagon reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any submission to the extent authorized by law. You acknowledge that you, not Bookswagon, are responsible for the contents of your submission. None of the content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of Bookswagon, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners or third party service providers (including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.)and their respective directors, officers and employees.

    Accept

    Fresh on the Shelf


    Inspired by your browsing history


    Your review has been submitted!

    You've already reviewed this product!