Those Fantastic Lives: and Other Strange Stories (Paperback)
**Book listings on our website do not always reflect the current availability of books on our store shelves. Check a book's in-store availability above the "add to cart" button. Or to be certain that a book you've found on our website is also here on our shelves, feel free to call us at 615-953-2243**
Prepare to be transported to the edge of the world in Bradley Sides' affecting and haunting debut collection of magical realism short stories, Those Fantastic Lives and Other Strange Stories. In Sides' tender, brilliantly-imagined collection, a young boy dreams of being a psychic like his grandmother, a desperate man turns to paper for a miracle, a swarm of fireflies attempts the impossible, scarecrows and ghosts collide, a mother and child navigate a forest plagued by light-craving monsters, a boy's talking dolls aid him in conquering a burning world, and a father and mother deal with the sudden emergence of wings on their son's back. Brimming with our deepest fears and desires, Sides' dazzling stories examine the complexities of masculinity, home, transformation, and loss. Bradley Sides is an exciting new voice in fiction, and Those Fantastic Lives, which glows with the light of hope and possibility amidst dark uncertainties, will ignite imaginations.
Bradley Sides’ writing appears in the Chicago Review of Books, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, The Rumpus, and dozens of other illustrious publications. He is a literary writer with a speculative bent and a penchant for magic realism. His stories are about young people searching for meaning and understanding in fantastic worlds, often tenderly exploring masculinity, home and belonging. He holds an MA in English from the University of North Alabama and is an MFA student at Queens University of Charlotte. He lives in Florence, Alabama, with his wife.
"Full of cinematic confections and concoctions. In deceptively buoyant prose that never sinks under the weight it carries, these stories are scary and funny and thrilling, sometimes all at the same time. I don't know if we should take this collection as a series of warnings, but being doomed has never been so enjoyable." —Josh Denslow, author of Not Everyone is Special
"Bradley Sides' debut collection is a treasure chest of dark wonder, one that brings to mind the best of Joe Hill and Ray Bradbury. It's perfect company for a stifling August night, or a rainy April morning, full of lovely places to get lost in for a little while." —Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
"Urgent and energetic, frequently exuberant and always entertaining, this debut collection of stories is indeed just what we need right now: a fantastic array of fantastic fiction, in both quality and content." —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures and Welcome to Christiania
"These exquisite but unsettling stories examine the fraught relationship between fear, love and hope. Individually, they show Sides’ skill at overlaying the real with the fantastic, contrasting innocence with malevolence. Together, they paint a picture of light driving out darkness, and love and hope—usually—overcoming fear." —Jen McConnell, author of Welcome, Anybody
"It’s a little surprising how scary and frightening some of these stories are, along with the neat way they are tied together. Sides really shows his talent and shines like a Lampyridae. He takes us through some of the deepest, darkest moments these characters have to face and brings a beautifully macabre level to each story." —Brendan Jesus, An award-winning horror screenwriter rotting away in New Jersey
"This debut collection gathers stories of magical realism involving haunted forests, psychic grandmas, a young boy who suddenly sprouts wings, and more." —Gizmodo
"Perhaps this is what is so successful about Those Fantastic Lives: the collection goes beyond familiar narratives of the supernatural by asking why we are afraid of monsters and ghosts, and the things we cannot explain..." —Costa B. Pappas, Fiction Writer's Review
"A wonderfully curated collection that hones in on the concept of family as each story expands and converses with its neighboring tales. Through tones that seem folkloric, Sides tells stories of grief and loss, the whirlwind nature of families, and of being an individual as a part of one, through a contemporary voice. Each story draws a connection in theme to others within this collection, but each presents these familiar themes and ideas through the lives of fantastic people and beings."--Ai Jiang, Strange Horizons
"Bradley Sides' debut collection is a treasure chest of dark wonder, one that brings to mind the best of Joe Hill and Ray Bradbury. It's perfect company for a stifling August night, or a rainy April morning, full of lovely places to get lost in for a little while." —Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
"Urgent and energetic, frequently exuberant and always entertaining, this debut collection of stories is indeed just what we need right now: a fantastic array of fantastic fiction, in both quality and content." —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures and Welcome to Christiania
"These exquisite but unsettling stories examine the fraught relationship between fear, love and hope. Individually, they show Sides’ skill at overlaying the real with the fantastic, contrasting innocence with malevolence. Together, they paint a picture of light driving out darkness, and love and hope—usually—overcoming fear." —Jen McConnell, author of Welcome, Anybody
"It’s a little surprising how scary and frightening some of these stories are, along with the neat way they are tied together. Sides really shows his talent and shines like a Lampyridae. He takes us through some of the deepest, darkest moments these characters have to face and brings a beautifully macabre level to each story." —Brendan Jesus, An award-winning horror screenwriter rotting away in New Jersey
"This debut collection gathers stories of magical realism involving haunted forests, psychic grandmas, a young boy who suddenly sprouts wings, and more." —Gizmodo
"Perhaps this is what is so successful about Those Fantastic Lives: the collection goes beyond familiar narratives of the supernatural by asking why we are afraid of monsters and ghosts, and the things we cannot explain..." —Costa B. Pappas, Fiction Writer's Review
"A wonderfully curated collection that hones in on the concept of family as each story expands and converses with its neighboring tales. Through tones that seem folkloric, Sides tells stories of grief and loss, the whirlwind nature of families, and of being an individual as a part of one, through a contemporary voice. Each story draws a connection in theme to others within this collection, but each presents these familiar themes and ideas through the lives of fantastic people and beings."--Ai Jiang, Strange Horizons