David Constantine

9781905583218
£7.99 or £6.75 if you buy online now.

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**WINNER of the BBC National Short Story Prize 2010**
*SHORTLISTED for the 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award*

‘Perhaps the finest of contemporary writers in this form’
– The Reader

'So good I'll be surprised if there's a better collection this year...'
– The Independent.

Tree-climbing students, volunteering soldiers, island-bound recluses... The characters in David Constantine’s remarkable new collection are united by an urge to absent themselves, to abscond from the intolerable pressures of normal life and withdraw into strange ideas, political causes, even private languages. Viewed from without, they appear sometimes absurd – like the vicar who starts conversing with the Devil when his wife leaves him – sometimes tragic – like the vision of a suicide being fished out of the River Irwell. Such is the force of Constantine’s compassion, however, we cannot help but follow each character deep into their isolation. And the further we descend, through the strata of each personal history, the ever-changing landscapes that bear down upon them, the more remarkable the discovery, at very bottom, that glimmers of redemption abide; like the babbling springs uncovered in the scars of a quarry that will one day heal it with a lake, or the secret haven of the title story, offering more than physical refuge, but a safe-house for dreams.

Also available from this author:

Under the Dam

by David Constantine
'Every sentence is both unpredictable and exactly what it should be. Reading them is a series of short shocks of (agreeably envious) pleasure...'
– AS Byatt, Book of the Week, The Guardian

'Flawless but unsettling'
- Boyd Tonkin, Books of the Year 2005, The Independent
'Constantine is writing for his life. Every sentence and paragraph is shaped, tense with meaning and unobtrusively beautiful, his images of the natural world burning their way into the reader’s mind...'
- Maggie Gee, The Times
>>More.

The BBC National Short Story Award 2010

Comma is proud to publish the prize anthology for one of largest awards in the world for a single short story, featuring all five shortlisted authors: David Constantine, Aminatta Forna, Sarah Hall, Jon McGregor & Helen Oyeyemi.
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