As Rivers Flow

by John L. Saul

Includes such stories Aire, Butley, Kennet, Blyth, Elbe, and Beside the Stour.

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

John Saul was born in Liverpool, England. He has also lived in France, Canada, Germany and Ecuador, where he began writing fiction. His short stories have appeared extensively in the UK and elsewhere, most notably in Australia and Canada. He is the author of Call It Tender and The Most Serene Republic: love stories from cities, both published by Salt Publishing. The Times wrote of Call It Tender on 9 June 2007 that "the short story is not only alive but being reinvigorated in excitingly diverse ways" and Time Out (18 July 2007) "It represents Saul at the peak of his powers." His third book of short stories, As Rivers Flow - "a beautifully conceived collection", said the Short Review (5 Oct 2009) - appeared in 2009. Given the presence of these collections, it can be fairly said that his work has been making a rare contribution to the life of the short story in the UK.

Reviews

[Patrick Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely extraordinary and criminally underrated work of short fiction ... like James Joyce, but with better control of the instrument than he ever displayed, certainly late in his life, and without the more childish/cerebral game elements, like the superficial links to the Odyssey which critics and academics delight in, which any lit grad could achieve ... I would have call the writing impressionistic ... the way the narrative always seems present, though the reader is not always sure of it's trajectory, and words, images, dialogue rise up out of it and flash and blaze and the fade away.