High Places: Stories - Softcover

"McFarlane writes with a deceptively plain hand, and her style gives shape to the unanswered questions of how well we can ever know each other or ourselves...The writing is clever and skillful in spades."--Kirkus Reviews

"Having triumphantly debuted with The Night Guest, which won the inaugural Voss Literary Prize and the Barbara Jefferis Award and was short-listed for a stack of others, McFarlane returns with a collection of short stories. She unsettled us then, and she unsettles us now, offering narratives that explore characters at the emotional borders."--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

"Her debut novel, The Night Guest, earned McFarlane a reputation as a wise-beyond-years storyteller. [The High Places] reinforces it...It's a joy to dwell in McFarlane's rich new world."--Booklist

"McFarlane has a gift for cutting into a story at precisely the right angle. . . . Her writing is skilled; her point of view is unique."--The Times (London)

"In her distinct and unusual voice--the disconcerting tone and dry humor are reminiscent of Margaret Atwood or Valerie Martin--McFarlane examines relationships with uncomfortable clarity and insight, observing the subtext of human behavior while acknowledging a mysterious power behind the reality we think we know."--Daily Mail (London)

"The High Places is superb. . . . Every one of the thirteen stories is a winner."--The Saturday Paper (Melbourne)

Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize

“THERE IS IN THESE TALES A RECURRENT ‘FEELING OF QUEASY ANTICIPATION,’ AS ONE OF MCFARLANE’S CHARACTERS OBSERVES, ‘AS IF SOME TERRIBLE THING MIGHT HAPPEN AT ANY MOMENT.’ . . . IT’S A MOOD YOU ASSOCIATE WITH FLANNERY O’CONNOR, EVIDENTLY ONE OF MCFARLANE’S INFLUENCES, AS WELL AS PATRICIA HIGHSMITH.”—THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (EDITORS’ CHOICE)

Ranging from Australia to Greece, England to a Pacific island, the stories in Fiona McFarlane’s story collection The High Places journey across continents, eras, and genres, charting the pivotal moments of people’s lives. In “Mycenae,” a middle-aged couple embarks on a disastrous vacation in the company of old friends. In “Good News for Modern Man,” a scientist conducts research on a small, remote island, where he is haunted by a colossal squid and the ghost of Charles Darwin. And in the title story, an Australian farmer turns to Old Testament methods to relieve a fatal drought. All are confronted with events that make them see themselves and their lives from a fresh perspective—and what they do as a result is as unpredictable as life itself.