Wry, funny, harrowing, and occasionally tender, Poovey casts a wide net, writing of apes and entomologists, neglected mothers and newlyweds, do-gooders and dictators with insight, verve, and empathy. Alternating between the comic and the horrific, these tales transcend geographic boundaries and elude current genres: they are universal stories—akin to fables—about people in conflict with their worst selves, told with urgency and aplomb.—Felica Von Faassburgerer; author, activist, professional dream interpreter, certified airline dietician, and suspected cat burglar.
Nine Bizarre Tales from the Tropics
An orphaned monkey struggles to chaperone a pair of tormented lovers . . .
A desperate widow hopes that a swarm of bees will reunite her scattered family . . .
An explorer is saved from death by a reclusive tribe whose mysterious generosity has one bitter stipulation . . .
A chance encounter at a bus stop reveals the surreal horror and human toll of a dirty war . . .
A man survives an abduction by secret police only to discover that his former life and friendships have lost their meaning . . .
A burnt-out aid worker exacts revenge on the man who corrupted her development project . . .
A homeless boy manipulates a honeymoon couple, exposing layers of deception, mistrust and jealousy . . .
A benevolent dictator vies with a rebellious teenage girl for the soul of their impoverished country . . .
A sleepy Honduran village undergoes a radical transformation when a Peace Corps volunteer disavows progress and pursues happiness for its own sake—via the taste buds . . .
Poovey pays homage to the great short-story masters of the past by adapting the conventions and tropes of classic literature to his own, highly idiosyncratic purpose. Expect no meta-fictions or head-games here, but instead compelling stories about events that matter, hitched to identifiable plots, driven by forward action, and populated with complex, fully realized characters. Despite these engaging anachronisms, however, his vision and subject matter are timely: he grounds his fiction in a Latin America beset with environmental degradation, homelessness, political violence, and the troubling side-effects of globalism—a stark landscape for certain, but one in which kindness, decency, and generosity persist. The results are absorbing, unsettling, and always entertaining.—Nigel Rhys Foote-Smythe, poet and author of The Night the Turkeys Drowned, A Welsh Poultry Man’s Memoir.
Chad Poovey is a sculptor and printmaker who occasionally writes fiction. His illustrations in this volume are hand-printed linoleum cuts. In 2022, Poovey’s work was shortlisted in two international literary competitions, the Fish Short Story and the European Writing Prizes.
6 x 8 inches. 296 pages. Hardcover, smyth-sewn binding, full color dustjacket. $24.95