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What is not yours is not yours : stories / Helen Oyeyemi.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, New York : Riverhead Books : Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2017Copyright date: ©2016Edition: First Riverhead trade paperback editionDescription: 325 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1594634645
  • 9781594634642
Uniform titles:
  • Short stories. Selections
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Books and roses -- "Sorry" doesn't sweeten her tea -- Is your blood as red as this? -- Drownings -- Presence -- A brief history of the homely wench society -- Dornicka and the St. Martin's Day goose -- Freddy Barrandov checks ... in? -- If a book is locked there is probably a good reason for that don't you think.
Summary: The stories collected here are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Fiction Oyeyemi, Helen Available 33111009407731
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Transcendent." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Flawless. . . another masterpiece from an author who seems incapable of writing anything that's less than brilliant." -- NPR

From the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird and Peaces comes an enchanting collection of intertwined stories.

Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret--Oyeyemi's keys not only unlock elements of her characters' lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In "Books and Roses" one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?" an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks," where doors can be closed only with a key--with surprising, unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think," a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).

Oyeyemi's tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.

"First Riverhead trade paperback edition: March 2017"--Title page verso.

Books and roses -- "Sorry" doesn't sweeten her tea -- Is your blood as red as this? -- Drownings -- Presence -- A brief history of the homely wench society -- Dornicka and the St. Martin's Day goose -- Freddy Barrandov checks ... in? -- If a book is locked there is probably a good reason for that don't you think.

The stories collected here are linked by more than the exquisitely winding prose of their creator: Helen Oyeyemi's ensemble cast of characters slip from the pages of their own stories only to surface in another. The reader is invited into a world of lost libraries and locked gardens, of marshlands where the drowned dead live and a city where all the clocks have stopped; students hone their skills at puppet school, the Homely Wench Society commits a guerrilla book-swap, and lovers exchange books and roses on St Jordi's Day. It is a collection of towering imagination, marked by baroque beauty and a deep sensuousness.

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