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Book Title

Fen

Subtitle
Stories
Author 1
Daisy Johnson
Body
Daisy Johnson’s Fen, set in the fenlands of England, transmutes the flat, uncanny landscape into a rich, brooding atmosphere. From that territory grow stories that blend folklore and restless invention to turn out something entirely new. Amid the marshy paths of the fens, a teenager might starve herself into the shape of an eel. A house might fall in love with a girl and grow jealous of her friend. A boy might return from the dead in the guise of a fox. Out beyond the confines of realism, the familiar instincts of sex and hunger blend with the shifting, unpredictable wild as the line between human and animal is effaced by myth and metamorphosis. With a fresh and utterly contemporary voice, Johnson lays bare these stories of women testing the limits of their power to create a startling work of fiction.

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List Price
$16.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-55597-774-0
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
208
Trim Size
Trim Size
5.5 x 8.25
Keynote
A singular debut that “marks the emergence of a great, stomping, wall-knocking talent” (Kevin Barry)

About the Author

Daisy  Johnson
Credit: Matthew Bradshaw
Daisy Johnson is the author of the short story collection Fen and the novel Everything Under, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. She is the winner of the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize, the A. M. Heath Prize, and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She lives in Oxford, England, by the river.
 
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Praise

  • Fen is a haunting book about a haunted place, and it’s more than worth it to take the trip.”—NPR.org
  • Fen was a howl I didn’t know I needed. . . . Hauntingly written.”—Celeste Ng, The New York Times Book Review
  • “[A] lusty debut. . . . [Fen is] a deep dive into symbolism, from a girl who seeks to starve herself into the shape of an eel to a house in love with its female inhabitant.”O, The Oprah Magazine
  • “A mix of dark, surrealist fairy tales and bone-chilling realism.”—Lesley Nneka Arimah, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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