The Architect Of Flowers: Short Story Anthology Where Beauty Becomes Antidote to Life's Grief and Loss

The Architect Of Flowers: Short Story Anthology Where Beauty Becomes Antidote to Life's Grief and Loss

The stories in William Lychack’s dazzling new collection, The Architect of Flowers, explore the dear and inevitable distance between people in loving relationships and find hope in dark situations. With tiny, precise details, Lychack observes the overlooked moments of everyday life—the small failings between parents and children, the long-held secrets in married life. A small-town policeman brings himself to shoot a family’s injured dog; an old woman secretly trains a crow to steal for her; a hybridizer’s wife discovers the perfect lie to bring her family magically together again. Lychack’s characters yearn to re-enchant the world, to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again, to make beauty serve as an antidote to grief. From ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, these stories are extraordinary portraits of life’s tender humiliations as well as its sharp, rude jolts. Deceptively simple stories about 'ordinary' working class characters. Lychack brings them to life with tiny insights and dazzling images he seems to exhale into every line. -- Dave Cullen, Columbine Skillfully written and absorbing, these stories frequently defy description and rarely proceed smoothly from point A to point B. -- Library Journal Ostensibly a collection of stories centered around grief and the unending search for solace, it's a rare and inimitable work and easily Lychack's best prose to date. -- Greg Robson , Resident Media Pundit Portions of this collection have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and on public radio's This American Life. A small town policeman brings himself to shoot a family's injured dog; an old woman secretly trains a crow to steal for her; a young boy at his father's wake finds the man lying in flowers as if in a bath; a hybridizer's wife discovers the perfect lie to bring her family magically together again; all the characters in this collection yearn to somehow re-enchant the world, to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again, to make beauty serve as an antidote to grief. Set in dying mill towns of New England, in timeless fishing villages by the sea, in great dreamlike cemeteries north of Greenpoint, each of these stories tries to necessitate the accidents that befall us, to build something durable from the worries and joys we carry, our lives so often prefigured by the losses and betrayals that we strive so hard to untangle, to make sense of and ultimately redeem. A middle-aged couple tries to salvage the deer they have accidentally killed; a pregnant woman brings home a box full of chicks to raise in the yard; from ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, these stories center on relationships--husbands and wives, fathers and sons--and bring to life the honest work and quiet grace involved in making-do, in holding onto all we care about as we say goodbye, the world always more strange and complex than we expect, love always more familiar and simple than we imagine. "In heart-rending, gorgeous prose, each story mines the grace and brutality of everyday life and leaves the reader slightly rearranged, and better for it. Lychack is a truly original writer." — Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women The stories in William Lychack’s dazzling new collection explore the dear and inevitable distance between people in loving relationships, and find hope in dark situations. With tiny, perfect details, Lychack observes the overlooked moments of everyday life — the small failings between parents and children, the long-held secrets in a marriage. From ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, his characters yearn to reenchant the world and to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again. "The prose rises to a level of intense lyricism that distinguishes this lovely, artful collection." — Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan "It is a poetry of narrative rarely ever found in fiction." — Mary McGarry Morris, author of The Last Secret WILLIAM LYCHACK is the author of the novel The Wasp Eater. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories , The Pushcart Prize, and on public radio’s This American Life. WILLIAM LYCHACK is the author of the novel The Wasp Eater . His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize , and on public radio’s This American Life . STOLPESTAD Was toward the end of your shift, a Saturday, another one of those long slow lazy afternoons of summer — sun never burning through the clouds, clouds never breaking into rain — odometer like a clock ticking all those bored little pent-up streets and mills and tenements away. The coffee shops, the liquor stores, the laundromats, the police and fire and gas stations to pass — this is your life, Stolpestad — all the turns you could make in your sleep, the brickwork and shop fronts and river with its stink of carp and chokeweed, the hil