Damage Other Stories

Twenty-two stories by a Jewish writer. The story, The Sign, is on his vanished Polish village, Between Two Towns is on the complacency of German Jews prior to the holocaust, and Hill of Sand is on his early years in Palestine.

Are damaged people destined to inflict damage? A young boy sidelined for being different, an artist unable to distance herself from her past, a famed actress past her prime, a Casanova who plays women but is acutely aware of his loneliness. These are some amongst the various tales of damaged people seeking escape, fulfilment or acceptance. Some long, some short, these sixteen stories have common themes of unhappy marriages; of secrets and lies, pleasure and guilt; of children letting down parents and vice versa; of women of a certain age, and whether they’ve still ‘got it’; of entitled and misogynistic men; and of the hypocrisy and double standards within Indian society. With original and unexpected angles, these tales explore the darkness that underpins the often ordinary lives of people. Thought-provoking, intense and evocative, these stories will transport you into the heart of India where tradition and modernity collide, often with devastating results.

A French teacher who collects fiancés; a fortune-teller who fails to predict the heartbreak of her own daughter; an aging cowboy seduced by a city girl . . . these are some of the unforgettable people who live in these pages. In Vanishing and Other Stories, secrets are both kept and unearthed, and lives are shaped by missing lovers, parents, and children. With wisdom and dexterity, moments of dark humor, and a remark- able economy of words, Deborah Willis captures an incredible array of characters that linger in the imagination and prove that nothing is ever truly forgotten.

Of Gulmohars and Kaners is the first work of fiction by the author which paints on a canvas, the geographical boundaries that extend from the Indian subcontinent to Europe to Greece and to Turkey. These pan global settings subtly convey the idea that while human emotions cannot be fathomed and scanned even by the most powerful equipment, it’s only the creative writer who can get under the skin of the characters and lay bare what goes on in a single human heart. The twenty stories—each a unique blend of intricacies of human life and labyrinths of the human mind—will keep you riveted throughout the evening. From intrigue to insinuation; from passion to perdition, the stories and microfiction in this collection represent the myriad shades of human emotions revolving around a single action which in no way is linear. While some of the stories carry the proverbial twist or sting in the tail, others portray with clinical precision the pain and tragedy of human existence. But the heterogeneity doesn’t end there. Just when the reader is in a sombre mood, contemplating the fate of a protagonist, the author will surprise you with a totally different genre.

"Dermont's short story collection, which follows her debut novel (The Starboard Sea, 2012), demonstrates the author's versatility and sardonic humor...Dermont delivers strong prose and intriguing characters who frequently defy stereotypical ideals...the overall effect is a tight collection that takes the reader in unexpected, often disconcerting, directions. Full of irony and contradictions, this compilation of contemporary short stories is a worthwhile effort."–Kirkus Reviews A luminous collection of short stories focusing on privilege and entitlement, from the bestselling author of The Starboard Sea Damage Control displays Amber Dermont's remarkable gift for portraying characters at crossroads. In "Lyndon," a daughter visits presidential landmarks following the death of her father. In "Damage Control," a young man works at an etiquette school while his girlfriend is indicted for embezzlement. A widow rents herself to elderly women and vacations with them as a "professional grandchild" in "Stella at the Winter Palace." And in "The Language of Martyrs" a couple houses a mail order bride on behalf of the husband's Russian mother. Dermont's stories have previously been published in many literary magazines and have also been featured in anthologies edited by Jane Smiley and Dave Eggers. Damage Control includes three previously unpublished pieces.

I believe in the sanctity of the ordinariness of everyday life: beyond its charmed boundaries lies confusion.” So speaks the voice of conservatism and conformity. But shouldn’t one fly, push oneself to the limit and beyond, break all rules? With humour and intelligence, the stories in Saving the Rainforest explore the tensions that can arise when the desire for personal fulfilment clashes with society’s norms. The Series This title is being reissued under the new Marshall Cavendish Classics: Literary Fiction series, which seeks to introduce some of the best works of Singapore literature to a new generation of readers. Some have been evergreen titles over the years, others have been unjustly neglected. Authors in the series include: Catherine Lim, Claire Tham, Colin Cheong, Michael Chiang, Minfong Ho, Ovidia Yu and Philip Jeyaretnam.

Yi T’aejun was one of twentieth-century Korea’s true masters of the short story—and a man who in 1946 stunned his contemporaries by moving to the Soviet-occupied northern zone of his country. In South Korea, where he is known today as “one who went north,” Yi’s work was banned until 1988. His momentous decision did not lead him to a safe haven, however: though initially welcomed into the literary establishment, North Korea sent him into internal exile in the 1950s, and little is known of his fate. Dust and Other Stories offers a selection of Yi’s stories across time and place, showcasing a superb stylist caught up in the midst of his era’s most urgent ideological and aesthetic divides. This collection unites his earlier modernist masterpieces from the colonial era with his little-known work penned during North Korea’s founding years, offering a rare glimpse into the making—and crossing—of the border between south and north. During the turbulent final years of Japanese rule, Yi’s elegant yet subdued stories championed both his native tongue and the belief in the capacity of art. In the heavily politicized environment of the North, his later works maintain a faith in the art of storytelling and a concern for the disappearance of customs in the throes of modernization. Throughout both eras, Yi focused on ordinary people: old men struggling to understand a changing world, lovers meeting up among ancient ruins, a lively widow targeted by a literacy campaign, a bourgeois couple trying to sustain themselves during the war by breeding rabbits, and more. Magnificently translated by Janet Poole, Yi’s work bears witness to global turmoil with a melancholic sense of enduring beauty.