Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets - Softcover

Appel, Jacob M

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1625579330 ISBN 13: 9781625579331

Publisher: Black Lawrence Press, 2015

Synopsis

A magician's parrot recommends against donating a kidney to his girlfriend.  Inside an antique grandfather clock, a dying child explores Ancient Athens.  Rural Virginia is swept by an epidemic of human resurrections.  An alien disguised as a Latvian chef opens unwittingly his restaurant opposite an abortion clinic.  Jacob M. Appel's Miracles and Conundrums takes us to a world of hope and desperation, where everything is possible, but so much seems far beyond reach.

About this title

About the Author

Jacob M. Appel is a doctor, lawyer, medical bioethicist, and a widely published fiction writer. In addition to THE TOPLESS WIDOW OF HERKIMER STREET (Howling Bird Press, 2016), he has written nine books, including, most recently, MIRACLES AND CONUNDRUMS OF THE SECONDARY PLANET (Black Lawrence Press, 2015). His first novel, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up, won the Dundee International Book Award in 2012. His short story collection SCOUTING FOR THE REAPER (Black Lawrence Press, 2014) won the 2012 Hudson Prize. He has won the Boston Review Short Fiction Competition, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for the Short Story, the Dana Award, and many other honors. He has published short fiction in more than two hundred literary journals, including Agni, Conjunctions, The Gettysburg Review, Prairie Schooner, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and West Branch. Appel holds graduate degrees from Brown University, where he also taught for many years, Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Law School, New York University's MFA program in fiction, and Albany Medical College's Alden March Institute of Bioethics. A resident of New York, he currently teaches at the Gotham Writer's Workshop and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Review

"A fine collection of memorable stories with a delicately surreal edge."--KIRKUS REVIEW (starred review)

"Engaging, surprising, and often deeply affecting..."--Jason Hess, New Pages

"A superb collection. These eight stories by Jacob Appel are beautifully crafted, rich in ideas, wit and compassion. The author's talents are various and so are the effects they produce--the interplay of light and dark radiates from every page....These stories can be wise and playful at the same time.  And sometimes they can also break your heart."--Lucy Rosenthal, author of The World of Rae English

"Appel presents a cast of characters worthy of his quirky title. Among them Red Ziggy, a restaurateur from a distant planet who opens Birmingham, Alabama's only Latvian eatery, and Happy Gallows, a widower with granddaughter who advertises in the newspaper for 'housekeeping and discourse.' The topics are weighty--abortion, climate change, cancer--but the touch light enough to make you wonder whether you're reading miracles and conundrums of this world or some other. An intriguing read"--George Harrar, author of Reunion at Red Paint Bay

About this edition

• Publisher: Black Lawrence Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1625579330
• ISBN 13: 9781625579331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 156