A Happy Man or Der Glückliche
$ 15.00
Les Figues Press, Los Angeles 2008
http://www.lesfigues.com
Selected short stories by Axel Thormählen, bilingual edition (English/German)
The tales in this collection could hardly be more diverse where content is concerned, ranging from the Christmas story 23 December to the young love of Dyke Crest Lane No. 1. We also meet the Construction Worker who keeps interrupting our lives with his relentless noise, the ancient church servant Thomas who inhabits the cathedrals where we catch our breath, and the old woman for whom the only uplifting thing is the Water Tower which rises near her house. In the familiar Course of Things, illness, healing process, and death go hand in hand; the Happy Man knows that, too, whereas the Churchgoer is still searching for a monumental meaning in life. We’d better make use of our Visiting Hour even if things keep breaking into little pieces, again and again.
https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781934254042/a-happy-man-and-other-stories.aspx
Book Reviews Blog
http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show_comment/1594
http://skylightbooks.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-encounter-with-happy-man.html
http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2008_11_013686.php
http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews/AxelThormahlenAHappyMan.htm
Interview with Axel Thormählen
http://www.theshortreview.com/authors/AxelThormahlen.htm
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Dental Gold and Other Stories
Axel Thormählen’s stories are as unpredictable as life itself, mixtures of pleasure and sadness in shifting registers along the scale between romance and satire. They deal with people who want to find comfort and some kind of foothold in human existence, even though some of them realise that contented stability will always elude them.
The Water Tower and Other Stories
In these six stories, everyday incidents and situations become extraordinary, lingering on in the reader's memory. For instance, the search for the perfect Christmas tree will never be quite the same again after reading '23 December'.
The pursuit of human happiness in all its different manifestations is at the core of these taut, ironic, and compassionate tales.
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