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The 2013 Winners are In!



Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

North America

• USA
• Canada

• 

  Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood

  Price: £8.99    Add to Basket

  This haunting winner of the 2000 Booker Prize tells the story of Elaine Risley's return to her home town of Toronto and the awakened memories of Cordelia, her childhood best friend and bully. Remarkable and deadly accurate portrayal of the manipulative power of little girls.

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  The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

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  A series of three quasi-detective stories from brooding New York novelist Paul Auster, haunting studies on the nature of identity in the sprawling urban landscape of the city. Modern and very mysterious.

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  Girl in the Polka Dot Dress by Beryl Bainbridge

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  In 1968, naive dental receptionist Rose purchases a one-way ticket to the United States and sets off to meet a man she knows only as Washington Harold. What are the intentions of her mysterious American host? And why are the unlikely duo so intent on tracking down the elusive Dr Wheeler – a man Rose credits with rescuing her from a traumatic childhood? Bainbridge’s final novel is as intricate and thought-provoking as any of her best work.

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  The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

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  Both a perfect introduction to Saul Bellow and a snapshot of 1930s Chicago, this is the story of a young Jewish boy growing up in a city stricken by the Great Depression wheeling and dealing his way from one barely legal job to another, falling in love and growing up.

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  The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

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  A ravishing, yet heartfelt book about the tragedy of forgetting, which tells the story of Abel, an old man living in Dallas, and Seth, a teenager from Austin. Both Abel and Seth are losing those they love to Alzheimer's and both speak of a fantasy land called Isidora where memory no longer exists.

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  Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom

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  These sublimely witty short stories portray the warts and all nature of human relationships with warmth and insight. An uplifting read.

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  Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles

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  Hallucinogenically weird and certainly uncomfortable, Bowles precise and stylistic prose describes the lives of two women who wish to break the constraints of 1950s American society. A bizarre and witty celebration of female freedom, it has been hailed as a landmark in 20th century fiction.

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  Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

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  A poignant novella from Truman Capote about a lonely yet beautiful socialite, determined to find herself a rich man in 1940s Manhattan. This edition is accompanied by three others short stories.

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  Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

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  Dickensian in scope and populated with a cast of eccentric, roguish individuals, Carey’s third Booker-nominated novel is a comic masterpiece. When his eponymous heroes – a conceited French aristocrat and a jaded, unkempt servant – are thrown together on a journey to the New World, they gain an insight into life at the opposite end of the human spectrum, and an unlikely friendship is born. This is both a tender portrait of two men and a dazzling reimagining of the birth of democracy.

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  My Antonia by Willa Cather

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  A masterpiece of American fiction, Jim Burden narrates the story of an immigrant girl growing up on the awe-inspiring, beautiful, wide open plains of Nebraska in the early 20th century.

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  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

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  Part adventure story, part snapshot of New York through the eyes of two Jewish boys in the 1940s and 1950s and part insight into the world of comic books from the excellent Michael Chabon. If you liked Glen David Gold's Carter Beats the Devil, you'll love this.

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  The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

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  The first in Raymond Chandler's renowned crime series featuring his tough detective Philip Marlowe. A complex and sophisticated thriller set in the boiling, urban sprawl of 1930s Los Angeles.

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  The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever

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  Cheever's debut novel is a warm-hearted family saga based in small town America and full of wonderfully eccentric characters. The constant changes in tone and direction are guaranteed to hold your attention and are brought together nicely by the end.

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  Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen

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  A hypnotic anthology from the Canadian poet and song writer Leonard Cohen illustrated by his own amusing drawings and self-portraits.

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  Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier

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  An extraordinary, outrageous and bizarre collection of short stories for those who have enjoyed Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl.

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  I Heard The Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

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  A rare insight into the culture and spirituality of the First Nations tribes relocated to British Colombia. Mark Brian, a dying Anglican priest, is sent to Canada to spend time with the tribe and learn to make peace with his death. A moving and profound book.

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  The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies

  Price: £16.99    Add to Basket

  This mesmerising trilogy about morality and enduring values tells the story of three characters from a small Canadian village who are linked by a secret and spans the first seventy years of the 20th century. A beautifully-written historical novel with sophisticated psychological depth.

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  The Privileges by Jonathan Dee

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  A thoroughly enjoyable read. Cynthia and Adam believe they are destined for greatness and a life of infinite possibilities, but what happens when this dream does not arrive as fast as they hoped and Cynthia, at home with her children day after day, begins to lose faith?

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  Americana by Don DeLillo

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  David Bell, a soulless advertising executive, flees his Manhattan office to embark on a road-trip across Mid-West America. An amusing critique of corporate America and contemporary anxieties.

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  Point Omega by Don DeLillo

  Price: £14.99    Add to Basket

  The new novel from DeLillo is sparse, bleak and powerful. A film-maker goes into the Californian desert to meet a neo-conservative professor involved in politics during the Bush administration. DeLillo artfully builds the complex tension between the two characters set against the backdrop of the expansive desert landscape. Can be read in a couple of sittings but you'll think about it for days.

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  Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis

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  A novel which took New York by storm in the 1950s, finally republished by Penguin. A young boy is sent to live in Manhattan with his aunt, a 'razzle dazzle butterfly' renowned for lines such as 'life is a banquet, and most suckers are starving.' Great fun.

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  The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

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  Deliciously dark and strange, deWitt's Booker-shortlisted novel pays homage to the classic Western whilst confounding the reader's expectations at every turn. Two notorious, brandy-drinking hitmen embark on a journey to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, they have a series of unsettling experiences, and one of them begins to doubt his vocation.

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  Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow

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  Set in the early 20th century and based on true events, E. L. Doctorow's novel tells the story of two reclusive, eccentric brothers living in a dilapidated New York City mansion. Langley and Homer try to adapt to the furious pace of change as it breezes in and out of their house, leaving piles of detritus from human remains, to a car and heaps of chandeliers. Anyone fascinated by the story of the Edith Beales will be enchanted by these hoarders.

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  American Psycho by Bret Easton-Ellis

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  Deeply disturbing, this is the quasi-fantasy world of Patrick Bateman, a bored, superficial, over-paid New Yorker who describes the perpetration of violent and deadly sexual assaults on women. A savage satire on the city that is more than gratuitous violence if you can bear it.

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  A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

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  Ostensibly a memoir, at times hilarious and at others deeply poignant, in which Dave Egger's describes his parents death and how he raised his younger brother Toph in downtown San Francisco. He jumps between fact and fiction, narration and direct speech, pointed exclusion of detail and vomiting his thoughts onto the page, in true postmodern, whimsical style; like marmite you'll either love it or hate it.