Of This New World
by Allegra Hyde
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Pub Date Oct 01 2016 | Archive Date Oct 01 2016
University of Iowa Press | John Simmons Short Fiction Award
Description
Over the course of twelve stories, Hyde writes with a mix of lyricism, humor, and masterful detail. A group of environmental missionaries seeks to start an ideal eco-society on an island in the Bahamas, only to unwittingly tyrannize the local inhabitants and disrupt the social ecosystem. The neglected daughter of a floundering hippie commune must adjust to conventional life with her ungroovy grandmother. A wounded veteran gets lost in erotic fantasies of his twin brother's life. Haunted by her years at a collegiate idyll, a young woman eulogizes a friendship. After indenturing his only son to the Shakers, an antebellum vegan turns to Louisa May Alcott's famous family for help. And in the final story, a down-and-out drug addict gets a second chance at life in a government-sponsored space population program, only to be flummoxed by erectile dysfunction. An unmissable debut, the collection charts the worlds born in our dreams and bred in hope.
Advance Praise
“Allegra Hyde is a talented ventriloquist, gifting each of her stories its own compelling voice, full of history and science, myth and folklore, humor and heart. But behind every façade lie Hyde’s unmistakable talent, her inventive imagination, and her joyful play with language. This is a great debut, not to be missed.”—Matt Bell, author, Scrapper
“These extraordinary stories illuminate our hunger for utopias both earthly and transcendent, and the sometimes dangerous lure of love. In Of This New World, Allegra Hyde writes with a genius scientist’s impassioned inquiry and a poet’s lyrical, exquisite precision.”—Tara Ison, author, Ball: Stories
“An ambitious and memorable debut, in which a dozen different characters, looking for a dozen different paradises, all end up learning some customized version of that ultimate Miltonic lesson: ‘the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.’"—Bennett Sims, judge, 2016 John Simmons Short Fiction Award
“Of This New World is the right title for a collection that’s so witheringly deadpan and compassionate about who we are now. From Adam and Eve to an uprooted flower child to a maimed veteran to a Mexican domestic to a hapless glue-sniffing colonist on Mars, these protagonists are runaways and spirit-seekers who know the power of mystery and license and desire, and believe in resistance and in living the solution and the willingness to dream, even as they confront their own unfulfilled promise. Having learned detachment as a survival strategy, they acknowledge a love that always stops short of fulfillment but remains exhilarating nonetheless.”—Jim Shepard, author, The Book of Aron
“With rare style, refined mischief, and a fearless spirit of philosophic and scientific inquiry, the twelve stories in Allegra Hyde’s Of This New World brilliantly orbit our longing for paradise, our ache for some elusive perfection within the human community.”—Melissa Pritchard, author, Palmerino and A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781609384432 |
| PRICE | $16.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Chessa H, Librarian
A collection of short stories with the concept of utopia at the heart of each. I'm a sucker for a good utopia, so this was a no-brainer for me. The concept is taken more broadly in this collection than I often think of it, which was suprising in a good way. There's a little something for everyone in this collection - from a colony on Mars to survivalists, Garden of Eden to hippie communes, momentary accidental families to almost deserted tropical islands. Read it! It's short and sweet and you won't regret it.
Reviewer 224449
This is an interesting collection of stories that focus on different ideas of utopias. It's a relatively short collection, and I enjoyed some stories more than others, but otherall I think it's a good collection. My favorite stories were Free Love, Delight(R), and Americans on Mars!
Maria A, Educator
Allegra's book is ideal for an intro to creative writing course because the stories vary greatly in terms of style, content, and There is something for everyone. Students will love the book's sharp, poetic voice. I would highly recommend this book for writers looking to study the craft of flash fiction and short stories.
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