"Superb, well-balanced and deeply seductive … demand[s] a lingering rereading."
-The Oregonian
"[Date of Disappearance] is the most beautifully produced object of bookery
that I've seen in a long time...The stories in this collection are long, inviting a type of engagement
you don't experience often these days...Sensual and dense ...Sometimes you find a great book
because it was recommended to you. Sometimes you find a great book because your finger
is on the pulse of the literary zeitgeist. Sometimes you're just plugging holes, books from
the so-called canon you've been meaning to get to. My encounter with Date of Disappearance
is none of those. It is the best short story collection I've had the pleasure to stumble upon
since Maile Meloy's Half in Love, and that was years ago."
--Evan Morgan Williams, author of Thorn
"Unforgettable. I find myself still musing about Cunningham’s characters long after
their stories have concluded. ... Ten literary gems."
—Ann Ronald, Bookin' with Sunny LitBlog
that I've seen in a long time...The stories in this collection are long, inviting a type of engagement
you don't experience often these days...Sensual and dense ...Sometimes you find a great book
because it was recommended to you. Sometimes you find a great book because your finger
is on the pulse of the literary zeitgeist. Sometimes you're just plugging holes, books from
the so-called canon you've been meaning to get to. My encounter with Date of Disappearance
is none of those. It is the best short story collection I've had the pleasure to stumble upon
since Maile Meloy's Half in Love, and that was years ago."
--Evan Morgan Williams, author of Thorn
"Unforgettable. I find myself still musing about Cunningham’s characters long after
their stories have concluded. ... Ten literary gems."
—Ann Ronald, Bookin' with Sunny LitBlog
The ten distinctive stories assorted here trace the disappearance of things physical, spiritual, or poignantly unnamable from various characters' lives. An evangelical minister sets out to win back the trust of his flock and save his "fallen" teenage son, meanwhile tormented by his own bedroom sins; a lively centenarian languishes in the confines of a retirement home, longing for a youthful life of freedom; disease leads a bereaved woman toward long-avoided reconciliation; and a taxidermist studies life and death through the artful models he creates.
Relevant and emotionally resonant at every turn, Date of Disappearance presents a panoply of private conundrums, as Cunningham's men and women, fathers and sons, youths and elders all face, with humor or disquiet, the blessed and bewildering challenges of living.
Relevant and emotionally resonant at every turn, Date of Disappearance presents a panoply of private conundrums, as Cunningham's men and women, fathers and sons, youths and elders all face, with humor or disquiet, the blessed and bewildering challenges of living.
Illustration by Nathan Shields
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Illustration by Nathan Shields
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M. Allen Cunningham is the author of the novels The Green Age of Asher Witherow(a #1 Indie Next Pick) and Lost Son (about the life and work of the poet Rilke), and the nonfiction works The Honorable Obscurity Handbook and The Flickering Page: The Reading Experience in Digital Times. The recipient of two Yaddo residencies and fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission and Literary Arts, Cunningham's writing has appeared in many publications including The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, Tin House, and Poets & Writers Magazine. ForeWord Magazine has named him “one of America’s most promising voices,” and he was cited in the Dzanc Books list of 20 Writers to Watch.
LITERATURE/FICTION
ISBN: 978-0-615-58931-2
208 pages
w / 10 ink & charcoal illustrations
by Nathan Shields on glossy stock
5.5 x 8.5 with French flaps
ISBN: 978-0-615-58931-2
208 pages
w / 10 ink & charcoal illustrations
by Nathan Shields on glossy stock
5.5 x 8.5 with French flaps
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