Home

Two friends are inexplicably drawn to a carnival-like -orchid garden. A man works obsessively on restoring a mansion he has inherited. An urban dweller is haunted by the echo of cries in the night. A traveler is lured by highway signs directing him to a place that he has always known.

The stories in Home, the follow-up to Mark Macdonald's acclaimed novel Flat, feature characters searching for truth and clarity in a world that is sometimes deceptive, usually miraculous, and often inescapable. Full of dark compulsions and seemingly irrational tendencies, Home is a place where all is not as it seems: authority figures defy reality, and fate takes charge as life and death become mere observances.

Informed by terminal illness and a trust in the wonders of the world, these stories are about anxiety, foreboding, and a sense of calm resignation and peace with matters beyond our control.

"An inventive, sometimes startling, work of fiction from a writer of formidable ability."--Globe & Mail

"These stories have the power to slip in and engrave lingering afterimages in the mind."--Quill & Quire

Praise for Flat:

"Uncanny. . . . With a deadpan worthy of Kafka, and the eye of a satellite camera."--Lambda Book Report

"It's wonderful to read a novel and get such piercing insights from little things, described concisely."--Toronto Star

Mark Macdonald is the book buyer for Little Sister's, Vancouver's legendary gay and lesbian bookstore. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications, including Quickies 2 and Carnal Nation.