Author Mavis Gallant
on Tour
January 6-15, 2015
with
From the Fifteenth District
(short stories – literary fiction)Release date: December 16, 2014
at Open Road Integrated Media
242 pages
ISBN: 978-1-4976-8507-9
***
SYNOPSIS
Even as we grow and change, the consequences of what we have left behind often lingerMavis Gallant has a unique talent for distilling the sense of otherness one feels abroad into something tangible and utterly understandable. In this collection, she relates the stories of those stranded in relationships, places, and even times in which they don’t belong.
In “The Moslem Wife” a woman is entrusted to look after a hotel in France when her husband is trapped in America after the breakout of World War II. As the situation progresses, the two grow in surprising and profound ways. In another tale, a German prisoner of war is released from France and returns home to a mother whose personality has been as irrevocably changed by the war as his has. In one of the most poignant entries, Gallant follows the life of a Holocaust survivor, illustrating how his experiences tint his outlook on life forty years later.
With its wide breadth of subject matter and the author’s characteristic way with nuance, From the Fifteenth District is classic Mavis Gallant. [provided by the publisher]
***
My Review:
Four Stars
Copy received from France Book Tours for an honest review
I have to say this is
the first time I heard of or read Mavis Gallant which is a little disappointing
because she really is an amazing writer. There are several reasons that I
don't naturally gravitate towards short stories. One it’s hard to become
invested in a short story because all the elements have to be in play. An
author has to successfully develop the plot and the characters and balance the
perfect amount of action and details. Gallant really did all this.
Her stories grabbed me from the beginning and I felt instantly connected to the
characters and interested in how the stories would evolve.
Other aspects that interested
me about Gallant are that her stories tend to revolve around World War II in
one way or another but each story was an individual experience. None of the
stories felt duplicated, all were authentic. This collection of short stories was
a piece of literature. I highly
recommend these stories for anyone that wants gratifying reads with a very
literary feel!
PRAISE FOR
FROM THE FIFTEENTH DISTRICT
“[From the Fifteenth District] is a splendidly written work, full of nuance and personality and compellingly evocative detail.” —Canadian Literature
“A fine-tuned and elegant collection.” —Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 1952 Mavis Gallant (1922–2014) left a successful career as a journalist in Montrealto live independently as a writer of fiction in Europe.
She had gained international recognition in 1951
when she was published in the New Yorker,
which in subsequent years released over one hundred of her short stories,
most of which are set in European cities or Montreal.
Random House published twelve volumes of her work.
Gallant was awarded the 1981 Governor General’s Award for Home Truths,
the 2002 Rea Award for the Short Story,
and the 2004 PEN/Nabokov Award for lifetime achievement.
She was a companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honor.
After traveling widely in Europe, in 1960 Gallant settled in Paris, where she died in 2014.
The Journals of Mavis Gallant: 1952–1969 is tentatively scheduled for publication by Alfred A. Knopf in 2015.
See more books by Mavis Gallant.
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Click on Entry-Form to enter the giveaway:
Entry-Form
Visit each blogger on the tour:tweeting about the giveaway everyday of the Tour
will give you 5 extra entries each time!
[just follow the directions on the entry-form]
US only giveaway:
your choice of kindle/epub of this book
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