Pasha Malla

Douglas Adams meets David Lynch in this witty yet horror-tinged fable about one of North America's scariest inventions--the local mall. After writing a letter in praise of "malls," our eccentric narrator is offered a "residency" at a shabby suburban shopping centre. His mission: to occupy the mall for several weeks, splitting his time between "making work" and "engaging the public," all while chronicling his adventures in weekly progress reports. Before long, a series of strange after-hour events rattles our hero, and he sets forth on a nightly quest to untangle the mysterious forces at play in the mall's unmapped recesses. Things quickly get hairy, and our narrator's optimism about his mall residency descends into doubt, and then into a full-blown phantasmagoria of horror and (possibly) murder. With the aid of a weird and wonderful cast of mall-dwelling misfits--including a pony named Gary--our narrator is forced to conclude that the mall may not be the temple of consumer bliss he initially imagined, but something far more sinister. And who, or what, is benefitting from its existence? Pasha Malla's creative genius shines in this madcap work of horror-fantasy--a cutting critique of consumer culture as embodied in the fading local mall.

Kill the Mall

One of The Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2017: A perfect mix of entertaining and edgy, Fugue States is a thought-provoking exploration of the first-generation Canadian experience from one of the more irreverent, inventive and daring minds writing fiction today Fugue States begins as Ash Dhar, a thirty-something writer, opens his mouth to deliver a eulogy at a funeral--the funeral for his own father, a Kashmir-born doctor. But in that moment between thought and speech, something mysterious occurs: a terrible wordless gap into which Ash falls helplessly, recovering only as the concerned faces of friends and family shock him into focus. Later, still unsettled as he sorts through his father's belongings, Ash discovers a partially completed and baffling work of fiction set in what seems to be Kashmir. Reading his father's words, Ash feels compelled to know more about this ancestral land--and yet he resists the impulse to visit, loathe to be a cliché, chasing self-discovery in a war-torn homeland. But Ash's childhood friend Matt--pothead, massage therapy student and self-described "maker of memories"--has no such hesitations and goes in Ash's place . . . with unexpected and excruciating results. Soon, Ash is forced to rescue Matt by following him to India--where he experiences a second alarming gap, one that echoes and amplifies the mysterious "fugue state" with which the novel began. Fugue States is at once a parody of clueless tourism; a knowing, uneasy look at contemporary masculinity; and a surprisingly poignant tale about the deep inchoate melancholy that abides in people who, like Ash and his father, and even Matt-the-fool, have never felt completely at home in the world.

Fugue States

David Barringer

Dan Kennedy

Ryan Boudinot

Lee Klein

Arthur Bradford

Susannah Breslin

Andrew Bomback

Elizabeth Ellen

Susan Townsend

John Leary

Dennis Dillingham

Pia Ehrhardt

Shauna McKenna

Damon Stewart

The third print issue by both literary journals - Hobart and Monkeybicycle - it features full issues by each in a flip-cover double-issue style. Hobart features stories by Andrew Bomback, Pia Ehrhardt, Elizabeth Ellen and John Leary and artwork by Andrew Feuk. Monkeybicycle features stories by David Barringer, Ryan Boudinot, Susannah Breslin, Dan Kennedy and an exquisite corpse by Arthur Bradford, Ed Page, Whitney Pastorek Shya Scanlon, Steven Seighman and Claire Zulkey.

Hobart/Monkeybicycle #3

Pasha Malla knows joy in all of its weird, unsettling, and wondrous forms. In their humor, careful warmth, and straight honesty, his stories capture clearly something odd and beautiful -the unmistakable feeling of empathy. From young couples fighting through the emotional trauma of the modern world to children navigating wayward, forbidden paths of fantasized adulthood, Malla presents characters with feet rooted deep in the familiar and hearts that slowly open to reveal the pain and unexpected love a life accumulates.The Withdrawal Method gives us worlds where Niagara Falls has run dry, where cream meant to curb skin cell rejuvenation can be purchased, and where ancient frustrated chess masters unwittingly invent machines that alter the course of history. Reminiscent of Lorrie Moore, Haruki Murakami, and George Saunders, these worlds are haunting, captivating, and constructed with a poise and precision that reaches beyond technical skill. Malla's is as assured a voice as seen in years, his smooth, mature style punctuated by bursts of wild humor and enlivened by endlessly inventive storytelling. As individual narratives, these stories speak to each side of the protean human psyche, but when taken in together they address with full understanding the fragility of our lives. Pasha Malla knows joy - knows its ugliness, its beauty, its uncertainty - and there is no moment in The Withdrawal Method left untouched by that knowledge.

The Withdrawal Method

Jeff Parker

Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion is a collection of found poems composed of the words of professional athletes. The content of post-game interviews and sports chatter is so often meaningless, if not insufferable, and yet there are athletes like Metta World Peace who transcend lame clichés and rote patter, who use language in surprising ways, who can be funny and shocking and insightful and alarmingly sincere -- pure poetry. Muhammad Ali offered dazzling displays of lexical wizardry, and Allen Iverson's infamous "practice" rant shifted the post-game press conference from the banal to the absurd. This book is a celebration of these rare and exceptional moments. Various poetic forms and line-breaks highlight -- or, in the words of Deion Sanders, "deem to set a candor on" -- the sophisticated, sublime, and surprising performances of language made by professional athletes.

Erratic Fire, Erratic Passion

Pasha Malla

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