Communion Town

Sam Thomson

An alluring curiosity of a book that will appeal to readers with an appetite for original and enigmatic stories. This collection could be read as independent short stories or a series of connected stories. The connections are often tenuous, but still there - like a passing, though recognisable, glance - telling the story of a city, both real and imaginary.

Extract

The city is a mystery when you notice it's full of sunken side streets falling away from you beside river and canal, by yellow and pink brick terraces, in September for instance, under castles of foliage, in deep light. Someone approaches and you're sure you recognise him, you've met just once, and not long ago, but he vanishes away down one of those streets and you miss him. You feel you owe an apology. And it only gets deeper, the riddle of it, as years go by and the special creatures stay exactly the same, just as they were when Stephen went with them. The modulation of names and faces makes no difference at all.

Parallels