First published 2021
Vague McMenamy tinkers with mechanical contraptions designed to enhance how ducks move through the world. His inventions occupy one corner of a collection that spans surreal landscapes and mock historical settings. A child drifts over a burning Chinese city, tethered to a kite that carries them above the flames and chaos below. Letters arrive from an Eastern Empire, bearing news from distant lands. A legendary beast pursues a naked woman in a comedy that unfolds with mythic undertones. Gray weaves visual elements directly into his narratives, creating stories where images and words operate as equal partners. The tales move between the macabre and the fantastical, finding humor in strange mechanical devices and sorrow in floating children. Each story presents characters caught between the ordinary world and something far stranger, where duck mobility matters as much as human flight and distant empires send correspondence across impossible distances.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, fantasy, magical-realism
Vibes: lyrical, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: anthology, magical-realism
Setting: China, Eastern Empire
Period: 20th-century
240 pages · Paperback · Canongate Canons