{ WHEN ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED a novel(la) by Sasha Fletcher
  | $12 BUY (email for international orders) [ 89 pgs., perfect-bound ] |
advance praise : My advice: those who are to read Sasha Fletcher's delightful enjoinder WHEN ALL OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED should go into an empty house of an afternoon, shut themselves in a backroom closet on a low shelf, & read straight through without stopping. Jesse Ball, author of THE WAY THROUGH DOORS Fletcher belongs to a new generation of writers who dare to risk language & imagination in equal measure. Every sharp line cuts & curls & the result is a world both familiar & exotic. This novella is part concept album, part epic poem, part twisted fable. A dream & a flood. Robert Lopez, author of KAMBY BOLONGO MEAN RIVER Sasha Fletcher, with his dream catastrophes & immense loves, can wand us into a new world. Here is a story that glistens. Deb Olin Unferth, author of VACATION an excerpt : I heard a cop come through the faucet this morning. I sent him on outside to grow me an ocean. I told him that when he did I would grind him into a beach. There was a cop in the back yard again. He was building us a deck. But he didn’t have any wood. I had no idea what he was trying to hammer together back there. HEY I said. SCOOT. Failing that I told him to grow me an ocean. I told him I HEARD YOU WERE BUILDING US A BEACH. What I asked Did he think of that? * I buried the bathtub today. She went to go run a bath, & a cop came out of the spigot & into the tub. WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY FOR YOURSELF she managed to finally ask. Out of his mouth tumbled little pink seashells. * WHAT’S UP WITH THAT the cop asked. He meant the yard. The mound of dirt where the bathtub was buried. I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT I said. & WHAT ABOUT THIS BEACH BUSINESS. YOU CAN’T HAVE A BEACH WITHOUT AN OCEAN he said. I am going to grow an ocean in my heart. I am going to drown in it. DIDN’T I TELL YOU TO GROW AN OCEAN IN MY BACKYARD I said. The cop said NO. He said THAT WAS ANOTHER COP. YOU WERE GOING TO GRIND HIM UP INTO A BEACH WHEN HE WAS FINISHED. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HIM I asked. He told me THAT COP RAN AROUND & HE RAN AROUND. HE DRESSED HIS GUN UP LIKE A BIRD & IT ATE ALL THE TEETH RIGHT OUT OF HIS MOUTH. HE RAN AROUND & WHEN HE RAN AROUND HE RAN AROUND YELLING. HE BUILT A TENT IN THE STREET & IN IT HE MADE A HOLE IN THE GROUND. I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING. HE KEPT ON EATING SEASHELLS. OR PUTTING THEM IN HIS MOUTH. WHATEVER. LISTEN I told the cop I NEED YOU TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS BEACH FOR ME. I NEED TO KNOW IF THIS IS REAL HERE. PLEASE I said. * THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE GARDEN she said. OTHER THAN PLANTS I said. OTHER THAN THE DRAWINGS OF PLANTS YOU CUT OUT & PUT ON STICKS & PLACED IN THE GARDEN. & THAT OTHER THING. RIGHT I said THAT OTHER THING. YEAH she said. She said I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN AROUND YOU ANYMORE. reviews / interviews : review at Outside of a Dog: Reading Log | |