Barrelling Forward

Stories

Winner of the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction and the CAA Emerging Writer Award, Barrelling Forward is a brilliantly crafted debut collection from one contemporary fiction’s newest literary star.

Eva Crocker sees life in sharper focus than the rest of us. The objects, rituals, and scenes of everyday life take on an almost mythic quality in these stories, even while remaining intimately recognizable to us all. Crocker peers at the underbelly of poverty and work, ambition and apathy, loneliness and love, to find the sliver of beauty in each spot. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems: the boundaries between friendship and sex dissolve; power relationships are turned on their heads, if only long enough to examine them from all angles; transgressions and escapes become new kinds of traps. In “Auditioning,” a young twin makes a desperate attempt to reclaim her individuality. In “Serving,” a father and a son give parallel accounts of what it looks like when you let life eat you from the inside out. In “Star of the Sea,” a man watches his past get literally torn down before his eyes. And in the Cuffer Prize-winning “Dead Skin,” an after-school walk through the barrens leaves two boys forever changed.

In stories that ache with longing even as they pulse with new possibilities, Crocker gives us an unforgettable array of ordinary people, sometimes soaring, sometimes sinking, but always, ultimately, barrelling forward towards what’s next.

Contributors

Eva Crocker

Eva Crocker’s stories have been published in Riddle

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 26 $2.60

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. In this story a young twin makes a desperate attempt to reclaim her … 20 $2.00

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 15 $1.50

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 16 $1.60

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. In this story a father and a son give parallel accounts of what it … 26 $2.60

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 14 $1.40

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 5 $0.50

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 24 $2.40

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 26 $2.60

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Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 30 $3.00

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. In this story a man watches his past get literally torn down before his eyes. 14 $1.40

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 5 $0.50

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. In this story an after-school walk through the barrens leaves two boys … 4 $0.40

Preview

Readings from this book by Eva Crocker explore the mythic elements that permeate the objects, and rituals of everyday life. 21 $2.10