The blurbA son worries he is becoming too perfect a copy of his father. The co-owner of a weight-loss camp for teens finds himself running the black market in chocolate bars. A man starts melting and nothing can stop it, not even poetry.
This terrific collection of stories by an exciting new talent moves from the serious and realistic to the humorous and outlandish, each story copying an element from the previous piece in a kind of evolutionary chain. Amid pigeons with a taste for cigarette ash, a rash of moa sightings, and the identity crisis of an imaginary friend, the characters in these eighteen entertaining stories look for ways to reconnect with people and the world around them, even if that means befriending a robber wielding an iguana.
Why you really oughta buy the book
Variety. Is it the spice of life, or is that cardamom? Either way, you've gotta love a book that covers house hunting and celestial mechanics, cheerleader porn and travel blogs, tug of war and car crashes, pregnancy tests, dwarves, hermits, cooking shows, dodgy teachers, the poetry of Sappho and the artistic potential of photocopiers.
Other reasons to buy A Man Melting
1) You're related to Craig by blood or marriage
2) You are Craig's mechanic, accountant, dentist, supervisor-one-removed, former teacher, or best friend from kindergarten
3) You collect books by authors with two first names
4) You have read the other 56 works longlisted for the 2010 Frank O'Connor Prize
5) Someone you secretly think is cooler than you said they liked it
6) You love lists.
The word on the street
"...it is a pleasure now to see the
full range of his striking talent in this collection." - Owen Marshall
"A Man Melting is simply the best new
collection of short stories I have read in an age." - Nicholas Reid, New Zealand Books, Winter 2011
“The book encapsulates what the best short
story should do: resonate and hone how we see our world. I often read a
book and wonder who I’d recommend it to. The reader who loves magical realism
and wacky scenarios? Or the fan of realist stories, full of character and
place? A Man Melting is that rare collection I’d honestly
recommend to both types of reader. There are stories here I’ll simply never
forget.” - Angela
Readman, The Short Review
"Craig Cliff's first collection of
stories heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice on the New Zealand
writing scene. These stories are perfectly formed, standalone gems, but the
collection also brings together satisfying harmonies as a whole." - Paula
Green, NZ Herald
"Cliff's quarry is the human heart
and he hones in on it with fierce accuracy. His characters are lonely in a hundred ways, but
never irreparably. The stories come up tender and cheerful and true." -
Kate Duignan, Landfall #220
"A Man Melting examines all the big questions of life
- birth, infancy, adolescence, violence, parenthood, death - and does so in
fresh and intriguing ways. Given the youth of its author, this fact, like the
book itself, is an astounding feat." - Siobhan
Harvey, The Listener
"These are stories with clout, the
sort teenagers might describe, if they were to read them, as being 'pretty on
to it'. Strong openings, jaunty plot lines and endings that come too soon."
- Marion Gilbertson, The
Nelson Mail
"He's good at snappy openings and the
18 stories zip along, so I'm sure this young Wellington civil servant won't
mind me saying it livened up quite a few bus journeys." - Dr
McLean, Otago Daily Times
"Quirky, funny stories from a local
writer to watch." - The
Sunday Star Times
"...gorgeous
insanity is the purview of Craig Cliff... [His] deft use of language and clever
thematic threads - elements from earlier stories pop up in those that follow -
will pull you into the stories and his oddly charming characters will keep you
there.” - Kylie Klein-Nixon, Kapi-Mana
News
"Es una colección muy heterodoxa y entretenida... Es sin duda un autor a tener en cuenta en el future." - Jorge Salavert, Notas Literarias
"Es una colección muy heterodoxa y entretenida... Es sin duda un autor a tener en cuenta en el future." - Jorge Salavert, Notas Literarias
"A Man Melting marks the appearance of a lively new voice in New Zealand
writing, wry, punchy, filled with fresh images, and providing an engaging mix
of fantasy and gritty realism... These are extraordinary stories about ordinary
people, and they are told with a great deal of affection. It is a consistently
powerful and entertaining collection...” - Dr
Paul Sharrad, South East Asia and Pacific Chair, Commonwealth Writers
Prize.
"The eighteen short stories are truly
insightful and amplify many of the absurdities around us, reflecting our own
expectations, fears and paranoia on the big questions in life. This book is of
the moment, and is rightly at home on a global platform. Cliff is a talent to
watch and set to take the literary world by storm." - 2011
Commonwealth Writers Prize press release.
Where to buy A Man Melting
Fishpond (paperback)
Mighty Ape (paperback)
Booktopia (paperback)
Amazon (Kindle edition)
The Nile (paperback)
Paper Plus (paperback) and (eBook)
iBooks (eBook)
& more...
