Jonathan Carroll is an American author celebrated for his modern fantasy and slipstream novels. His narratives often explore the intrusion of imagination into reality, blurring the lines between the ordinary world and the surreal. Frequently compared to magical realists of South America, Carroll masterfully employs elements like talking animals and realms that hover on the edge of dreams. His distinctive style probes the delicate boundary between what is real and what is imagined, offering readers a unique and captivating literary experience.
"Stuck in neutral, Graham Patterson finds his decision to get tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina setting off a series of extraordinary events that changes his life forever in ways he never could have imagined, including the opportunity to choose from three different lives"-- Provided by publisher
Set in the 1940s, the story follows Davis Sterling, a privileged heir who shifts from a carefree lifestyle to a serious pursuit in sports writing, defying his father's expectations. His journey leads him to cover a baseball team, where he encounters the groundbreaking first white player in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Along the way, he also discovers love, challenging societal norms and personal ambitions. This narrative explores themes of identity, ambition, and the complexities of race in sports during a transformative era.
For connoisseurs of imaginative fiction, the novels of Jonathan Carroll are a special treat that occupy a space all their own. His surreal fictions, which deftly mix the everyday with the extraordinary, have won him a devoted following. Now, in Glass Soup, Carroll continues to astound . . . .The realm of the dead is built from the dreams--and nightmares--of the living. Octopuses drive buses. God is a polar bear. And a crowded highway literally leads to hell.Once before, Vincent Ettrich and his lover, Isabelle Neukor, crossed over from life to death and back again. Now Isabelle bears a very special child, who may someday restore the ever-changing mosaic that is reality. Unless the agents of Chaos can lure her back to the land of the dead--and trap her there forever.Glass Soup is another exquisite and singular creation from the author January magazine described as "incapable of writing a bad book much less an uninteresting one."
Vincent Ettrich, an engaging philanderer, discovers that he has died and come back to life - but he has no idea why. He gradually discovers that he was deliberately brought back to life by his one true love, Isabelle, so he could educate their son who, if correctly raised, would save the universe.
Frannie McCabe realizes something seriously weird is going on when the dead dog he buried keeps turning up again. The Sciavos, a couple whose domestic war has the police involved, disappear completely. And Frannie's teenage self arrives to help him sort out his mistakes - before its too late.
Bestselling author Sam Bayer is stuck. Burned out from his third divorce, bored with the formulaic rut his writing has fallen into, and unable to deliver the manuscript for which he has been paid a stratospheric advance, he is desperate for inspiration. But a chance visit to his hometown of Crane's View, New York, sparks his imagination. Soon he immerses himself in an unsolved case of murder that took place when he was a teenager--Sam himself had discovered the body of the victim, a beautiful and wild teenage girl named Pauline. At the same time he is drawn into an explosive affair with a gorgeous but seriously loopy fan with the improbable name of Veronica Lake. As Sam learns the disturbing facts about his lover's past, Pauline's murderer reappears--not only endangering Sam but putting his beloved fifteen-year-old daughter in jeopardy as well. Not knowing whom to trust, Sam has to brace himself for the truly unexpected resolution to this decades-old mystery.
