| The Well and Other Stories
Nick Faragher
ISBN 978-1-897235-48-5 / trade paper;
$16.95 / 197 pages / September 2008
Nick Faragher’s debut collection of short fiction deftly combines sharp-witted voyeurism, psychological twists, and an assembly of maladjusted characters whose dark desires govern their fates.
Set in 1960’s Greece the “The Watch Seller” and “Birds for Breakfast” turn on mystery and moral dilemma. Set in Italy, “Piazza del Cignois” details how lust and deceit easily conquer romance, while the title story, “The Well” unravels a contemporary account of deceit and Nazi ghosts. Faragher’s stories are relentless in their investigations of the alleys and sideroads of the human psyche, as witnessed in “The Promising Artist” — a sinister tale of a narcissistic man and an overweight young woman, and “A Wee Bit of Fun”, a story forged from a homophobic hate crime in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Tense, compelling and unwavering in their truths, Faragher’s stories will linger long after the reading. |
