Astray - Softcover

Emma Donoghue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1447211952 ISBN 13: 9781447211952

Publisher: Pan, 2012

Synopsis

Counterfeiter, dishwasher, prostitute, attorney, sculptor, mercenary, elephant, corpse the fascinating characters that roam across the pages of emma donoghues latest, fact inspired fictions have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters they cross other borders, too those of race, law, sex and sanity they travel for love or money, incognito or under duress donoghue describes the brutal plot hatched by a slave in conjunction with his masters wife to set them both free she draws out the difficulties of gold mining in the yukon, even in the supposedly plentiful early days and she takes us to an early puritan community in massachusetts unsettled by an invented sex scandal astray also includes the hunt, a shocking confession of one soldiers violent betrayal during the american revolution, which has been shortlisted for the 2012 sunday times short story award astray is a sequence of fourteen stories by the prize winning author of room and the sealed letter these strange, true tales light up four centuries of wanderings, offering a past made up of deviations and a surprising and moving history for restless times

About this title

About the Author:

Born in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish writer who spent eight years in England before moving to Canada. Her fiction includes Slammerkin, Life Mask, Touchy Subjects, The Sealed Letter and the international bestseller Room (shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange prizes).

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* Inspired by various newspaper articles and stories from the last four centuries, Booker Prize finalist Donoghue’s (Room, 2010) masterful new short story collection explores the ways people’s lives can take unexpected and unprepared-for turns. A fallen woman in Victorian England supports herself and her child by the only means available to her until her younger brother comes up with another option. As the Civil War rages on, a slave and his mistress plot a daring escape. A bitter Puritan seeks revenge upon two women who spurned him. A woman sails toward Canada to join her husband, not knowing he’s fallen gravely ill with cholera. A lawyer sets his sights on a wealthy young widow who seeks his help. A young woman makes a startling discovery about her politically powerful father after his death in New York City at the dawn of the twentieth century. Donoghue details the particular historical source that inspired her at the end of each story, and she discusses how each one fits in with her overall theme in the afterword. Revolutionary-era New Jersey, Civil War–era Texas, the gold rush Yukon, and many other settings come to life in this wonderfully imaginative, transporting collection. --Kristine Huntley

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1447211952
• ISBN 13: 9781447211952
• Binding: Paperback