Alphabetique: 26 Characteristic Fictions (Tales in the Lives of the Letters) —
Molly Peacock has written a new classic, a one-of-a-kind collection of magical tales inspired by the lives of the letters of the ALPHABET.
From A, who climbs an Alp with her husband, but finds it is an apparition from her own past that points them toward their future; to D, who always felt he was double, and after a lifetime of denial finds a way to live his truth; to L, the glamorous star of yesteryear who is preparing to slip into the shadows until a most intriguing visitor materializes to change her mind; to P, a poet in a faraway land, watching his sleeping lover and listening for the hoofbeats of warriors; and Q, an orphan who one day, somehow, finds himself standing before the Queen.
Alphabetique: 26 Characteristic Fictions is unique, but nevertheless fits perfectly with Molly Peacock’s extraordinary body of work, drawing on the same wellsprings of creativity and artistry as her poetry, her memoir Paradise, Piece by Piece, and her bestselling work of biography (and so much more), The Paper Garden. These charming, incisive, sensual stories of love, yearning, and self-discovery are complimented by Kara Kosaka’s layered, jewel-bright collages.
What People Are Saying
“These are not works of naturalism,” Steven W. Beattie has written about Alphabetique in Canada’s National Post. “They tilt more toward fable or allegory. This immediately sets the book apart from the vast majority of Canadian short fiction, or indeed much international short fiction since Chekhov and Joyce.”