Dogwalker: Stories

Dogwalker: Stories

The debut collection of an O. Henry Award€“ winning short-story writer, <i>Dogwalker</i> 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 <i>Dogwalker</i> are narrated with surreal tranquility, with a pronounced lack of amazement at life€s vicissitudes and an affable acceptance of its strangest circumstances. <br><br>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.