House of Large Sizes

Once in a while a novel comes along that is very different. House of Large Sizes is such a novel. A dysfunctional, sexually addicted and inauthentic little family finds its failings coming to a head when one member decides to deal with his pain directly and heads to New Orleans for an unsanctioned sex change. They all end up in The French Quarter-in "The sump of America"-and a great mythic Jambalaya of horrors are visited upon them as a venomous and self-professed witch threatens to run amok. House of Large Sizes is a rare but extraordinarily "readable" literary work, which draws from multiple genres to produce its sometimes shocking and laser-like effect on the imagination.

Ian Graham Leask was born in what is now the Royal Borough of Richmond Upon Thames, West London, and has lived in Southend-on-sea, Brighton & Hove, in England; Saarbrucken, in Germany; and now makes his home in Minneapolis, USA, where he took degrees from the University of Minnesota. Leask is a publisher and has taught fiction writing, literature, mythology and composition for the University of Minnesota, COMPAS Writers-in-the-Schools, and the Loft--a non-academic institution for the advancement of writing in Minneapolis. He is also a private literary consultant for fiction writers and memoirists. He co-hosts KFAI's book-talk show, "Write On! Radio" and is also the author of the story collection The Wounded and other stories about sons and fathers.