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A note to US-based customers: All Lit Up is pausing print orders to the USA until further notice. Read more
Funny, smart and sharply composed, Nick McArthur’s debut book is just what the title suggests – a tome on brevity and heartbreak, – an all-out exploration of weirdness. At its heart, Short Accounts of Tragic Occurrences is a full account of failure, and an inventory of loss. The trials and deprivations probed in McArthur’s fiction are of the direst variety: a promising sandwich goes completely uneaten; in another, an elderly woman devolves into a ball of flesh; a high-ranking government official falls madly in love with his fax machine, only to find that his love unrequited. With a wry manner and quick gait, Short Accounts of Tragic Occurrences is a bold gambit from a unique voice in Canadian writing.