Short description
A collection of short stories from a conjurer of strange places and displaced people. From the story of the entertainer who is compelled to collect small people, to the monk who pushes away a mountain from his monastery, we are confronted with characters who could have been plucked from a fairy tale and yet are very much part of our own world.
Long description
The Garden of Bad Dreams is a seductive collection of short stories from Christopher Hope: a conjurer of strange places and displaced people.From the story of the entertainer who is compelled to collect small people, to the monk who pushes away a mountain from his monastery, we are confronted with characters who could have been plucked from a fairy tale and yet are very much part of our own world.Transporting us from the Malaysian highlands to an Ex-Servicemen's Estate in Badminton, from a zoo in the midst of a civil war to a forested hillside in central Serbia, The Garden of Bad Dreams is a constantly surprising, highly addictive mixture of the absurd and the darkly familiar. It is a masterful collection.
Review
'Grave and tender, savage and subtle... Remarkable.' Giles Foden, Guardian 'Exceptionally funny... Hope's novel, his style lively, colorful, colloquial, is an addictive read.' Brian Martin, Sunday Telegraph 'Hope writes with extraordinary exuberance and invention... This powerful, disturbing, scintillating novel confirms me in my view that Hope is one of the dozen best novelists in this country today.' Francis King, Literary Review