Showing results for "Man of Pain" in Literary Fiction

Brought to you by Penguin. FROM GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST AND WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE Ray wants the perfect body. But how far is too far? When his training turns extreme, Ray is pulled into a dark gym culture that promises results at any cost. As his body changes, so does...

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. They can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. The zenith of Empire is bookended by two catastrophic wars that slaughter vast swathes of humanity. And yet authors manage to record and create fragile libraries of humanity, its talents, its dreams and increasingly its nightmares.

Set in the Eastern Caribbean at the beginning of the 20th century, No Pain Like This Body describes the perilous existence of a poor rice-growing family during the August rainy season. Their struggles to cope with illness, a drunken and unpredictable father and the violence of the elements end in unbearable loss.