You Have 24 Hours to Love Us - Softcover

Ware, Guy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1905583265 ISBN 13: 9781905583263

Publisher: Comma Press, 2013

Synopsis

Identity, in Guy Ware’s confident debut short story collection, is a mercurial thing. Arriving at a nondescript suburban house, a middle-aged man is met by a new wife, a new past, and a memory he cannot surrender. A chance liaison outside Covent Garden tube station leads to a cruel game of make-believe. A chicken farmer on a remote mountainside is alarmed to learn the president of a faraway superpower needs his approval. Lawyers paint conflicting pictures of an alleged terrorist; a city trader decides, without warning, to walk out of her life; flirting lovers take role-play to a new, existential, level. Whether living under a totalitarian regime or simply getting through the day in a grindingly predictable metropolis, Ware’s characters struggle with the urge to redefine themselves, to start again, to reboot. Knowing that the course of an entire life can hinge on the smallest decision—turning left or right—they ultimately remind us of the courage, as well as the coping mechanisms, of facing up to responsibilities and simply staying put.

About this title

About the Author:

Guy Ware has been widely published in prize collections and anthologies and is a regular contributor to the “Tales of the Decongested” story readings at Foyles book shop in London.

Review:

“Clever, sustained, and engaging fictions that toy with ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events . . . a daring and refreshing collection.”  —Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Comma Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1905583265
• ISBN 13: 9781905583263
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140