Publisher's Synopsis
Novella Express #1
with:
- Little Apples by Ricky Monahan Brown
- Black Cat and the Japanese Umbrella by Lowri Laresn
- Albertine by Laurence Klavan
Novella Express is a new book series publishing novellas submitted from around the world.
Each book edition is available in print form (208 pages, including several colour pages) and is available for pre-order now.
In addition, each novella will be produced as an eBook, and distributed through our partners Faber Factory.
Including:
LITTLE APPLES by Ricky Monahan Brown
An aspiring writer of gothic fiction and his wife move upstate when financial crisis hits New York City.
Their destination ― a house that was once the height of modernity and the orchard that they establish there.
As the couple begin a new life, crisis continues to stalk them. Astrid is slowly consumed by her beloved apple trees. The police are joined by the local community in investigating a headline missing person case, and nothing is quite as it seems. Then, when the pair seem to have established their own personal Eden, they must confront the ungodly powers gathering in the roots of the surrounding forests.
Ricky Monahan Brown's Little Apples has all the aromatic flavour of the modern Gothic: sharply tart amid rot and decay. This dark and wry tale explores some of the strangest manifestations ever to be found growing at the heart of a contemporary marriage.
ALBERTINE by Laurence Klavan
When life is no longer short, what will we long for?
In the near-future, those who can afford it will be genetically engineered to age slower and live longer, to have many lives within one life.
Now the privileged and galvanic Albertine is at yet another crossroads in her seemingly endless time on Earth, having met one more person with whom she has fallen passionately and heedlessly in love.
Albertine's friend is her medician, "half-doctor, half-magician," who administers her longevity treatments and narrates the story. Albertine will beg him to stop the pain of loving so many. Meanwhile, the government decides to take drastic measures to pare the vast amounts of rich people who keep existing, gobbling resources.
Albertine is a story about how technology might alter how we live and die, have sex, kill, earn, achieve, parent, and grow up. It's also a timeless novella about the transitions all lovers make and-if they're lucky-survive.
BLACK CAT AND THE JAPANESE UMBRELLA by Lowri Larsen
Black cat was magical and like no other mother. What she gave us we will never forget; the most beautiful, magical mother ever.
The narrator of Black Cat and the Japanese Umbrella is a young girl processing her childhood to find enchantment and healing in place of damaged lives, and mundane home and school life. Nobody should come of age at age ten.
Lowri Larsen's novella is a charmed yet sad story, bringing to life the transforming power of magic in all its forms.
