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With a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue and a sensibility as unique as his subjects, Arthur Bradford peels back a surface layer of depravity and violence to reveal a world of surprising gentleness, compassion, and innocence.
The debut collection of an O. Henry Award- winning short-story writer, Dogwalker assembles its cast from society's misfits: the disabled and the blind, the hapless and the troubled, and all species of mutants--including a giant slug that almost breaks up a marriage, a preponderance of three-legged dogs, and a family of circus freaks who look remarkably like cats. Here, too, are hexes, voodoo, refrigerated dead puppies, and an unforgettable game involving a chainsaw. The stories in Dogwalker are narrated with surreal tranquility, with a pronounced lack of amazement at life's vicissitudes and an affable acceptance of its strangest circumstances.
With a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue and a sensibility as unique as his subjects, Arthur Bradford peels back a surface layer of depravity and violence to reveal a world of surprising gentleness, compassion, and innocence. In these twelve strikingly provocative and hilarious stories, he emerges as an utterly original new voice in contemporary fiction.
Dave Eggers
[Bradford's] stories remain in your head, much like, say, a severed torso might remain under the tracks of a train.... How can stories such as these be, still, so funny, so full of something like joy? These are questions we may never, ever answer. If you don't like Arthur's stories you are not my friend.
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The longest journey of any person is the journey inward
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