Continent - Softcover

Crace, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0880014989 ISBN 13: 9780880014984

Publisher: PerfectBound, 1997

Synopsis

Jim Crace's internationally acclaimed first book explores the tribes and communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven tales Crace travels a strange and wonderful landscape: "Talking Skull" takes the reader to a tiny agricultural village renowned for the sexually-charged, mystical milk of its calves; "Electricity" introduces a remote flatland region where a monumental ceiling fan changes an entire town's attitude toward modernization. From the acacia scrub of the flatlands to a city bazaar jammed with vegetable stalls, tourists, and beggars, Crace's invented world is as fabulous as it is eerily familiar.

About this title

Review:

To those who say there's nothing new to be written or read, Jim Crace has responded. For this provocative collection of short stories, Crace created a whole new continent. Unnamed and unspecified, the continent nevertheless resonates with characters, developments, contradictions and examinations of the path and power of progress. In one story electricity comes to a country in the form of a giant fan; in another a government agent out to exploit a primitive people discovers the beauty of traditional life. The book, which won a Whitbread Prize, takes us to a new world in a journey that causes us look more closely at our own.

From the Back Cover:

Jim Crace’s imaginative first book—seven linked stories—now available in deluxe paperback as part of Ecco’s The Art of the Story series

Jim Crace’s internationally acclaimed Continent explores the tribes and communities, conflicts and superstitions, flora and fauna of a wholly spellbinding place: an imaginary seventh continent. In these seven tales Crace travels through strange and wonderful landscapes: “Talking Skull” takes the reader to a tiny agrarian village renowned for the sexually charged, mystical milk of its calves; “Electricity” introduces a remote region where a monumental ceiling fan changes an entire town’s attitude toward modernization. From acacia scrubland to a city bazaar jammed with vegetable stalls, tourists, and beggars, Crace’s invented world is as fabulous as it is eerily familiar.

About this edition

• Publisher: PerfectBound
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0880014989
• ISBN 13: 9780880014984
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144