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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'In The Best Australian Stories 2014, Patrick White Award–winning author Amanda Lohrey selects the outstanding short fiction of the year. Sometimes fantastical, sometimes raw, and always a ‘shot of adrenaline to the mind and heart’, this collection features exciting new voices alongside the established and admired.'
'The edges of reality blur in a corporate lawyer’s tale of working in a 1200-storey glass tower. A prized coffee table becomes the focus of a father’s anxieties and frustrations. Tense and fractured lines of communication shape the life of an interpreter on Christmas Island. Imaginative, remarkable, intimate – this unmissable anthology celebrates the art of consummate storytelling.' (Source: Publisher's Blurb)
Notes
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Content indexing in process.
Contents
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Introduction,
single work
short story
'Some readers are drawn to the promise inherent in a novel, and its true that the longer form can offer a slow and seductive immersion, but the short story offers pleasure of another kind...'
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Bring Closer What Is Left to Come,
single work
short story
'It is peak hour in the City of Light. A women cycles backwards up to a steep incline...'
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The Coffee Table,
single work
short story
'The new coffee table was an event. It was meant to be a prized relic...'
- The Horse Hospital in Dubai, single work short story (p. 23-33)
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Submerging,
single work
short story
Two young boys live with their grandfather on an island that is slowing sinking into the ocean. 'Sam stared up at the island’s cliff, its base gnawed away by the climbing ocean to leave only a thin shelf. Other places were submerging too: the jetty where he had nearly caught that white sea-snake was completely under.'
- This is Who You Are. You'll See, single work short story (p. 41-49)
- Mrs Sunshine, single work short story (p. 50-56)
- Snake in the Grass, single work short story (p. 57-65)
- Blue People, single work short story (p. 66-74)
- Now I See, single work short story (p. 75-84)
- The Interpreter, single work short story (p. 85-91)
- The Peacock, single work short story (p. 92-106)
- What I Didn't Put in My Speech, single work short story (p. 107-113)
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Too Solid Flesh,
single work
short story
'An aging actress looks out at the view from her hotel room: a shopping centre, KFC, a discount garage; the Pacific Ocean somewhere behind it all. A city that feels too big or too small (compared to the country, compared to London). You can't get lost. Her phone makes the sound of a Bernard Herrmann score...' (Publication abstract)
- Civility Place, single work short story (p. 126-144)
- Something Special, Something Rare, single work short story (p. 145-159)
- The Stories I Read as My Mother Died, single work short story (p. 160-164)
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Sugar Bag Dreamin' Country,
single work
short story
'The routine task of transporting Jimmy Sugar to attend sorry business in Adelaide River takes Ray Cunningham on a detour into the old man’s country, where simple events take on new meaning.'
Source: Description from the 2013 Overland Victoria University Short Story Prize for New and Emerging Writers shortlist (https://overland.org.au/2013/10/shortlist-for-the-2013-short-story-prize/)
- Flicking the Flint, single work short story (p. 174-190)
- The Panther, single work short story (p. 191-202)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Black Inc Earns a Gold Star
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 December 2014; (p. 17)
— Review of The Best Australian Stories 2014 2014 anthology short story ; The Best Australian Essays 2014 2014 anthology criticism essay ; The Best Australian Poems 2014 2014 anthology poetry
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Black Inc Earns a Gold Star
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 27-28 December 2014; (p. 17)
— Review of The Best Australian Stories 2014 2014 anthology short story ; The Best Australian Essays 2014 2014 anthology criticism essay ; The Best Australian Poems 2014 2014 anthology poetry