Half a creature from the sea
Subtitle: a life in stories
By: David Almond ; illustrated by Eleanor Taylor
Contributors: Taylor, Eleanor, 1969- ill
Edition: First U.S. edition.
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 222
ISBN-13: 9780763678777
Description: An anthology of dark, powerful and moving short stories from master storyteller David Almond, inspired by his childhood in the north-east of England. It features coming of age stories on the theme of closeness to home, deftly interwoven with illuminating autobiographical pieces on the inspirations behind the fiction. Stories include: "The Missing Link", "Joe Quinn's Poltergeist", "Harry Miller's Run", "Slog's Dad", "Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads", "Mary Malone", "Half a Creature from the Sea", and, "When God Came to Kathleen's Garden". David Almond says of this unique collection, "Stories on the page are so beautifully neat. All that lovely black print; those lovely straight lines and paragraphs and pages. But stories are living things, creatures that move and grow in the imaginations of writer and reader. They must be solid and touchable, like the land, and must have fluid half-known depths, like the sea. These stories take place in a real world - but in fiction, real worlds merge with dreamed worlds. Real people walk with ghosts and figments. Earthly truth goes hand-in-hand with watery lies."