• Echolocation

Echolocation

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978-1-988732-56-5 | 2019 May | 256 Pages

ABOUT THIS BOOK

In this provocative collection of short stories, Karen Hofmann creates characters who struggle to connect or disconnect from entanglements and relationships. With ironic accuracy and sensuous imagery, Hofmann considers a range of human foibles: a newlywed couple who transform into feral beasts during the hardships of a remote research expedition; backbiting faculty members who strip down during a post-conference BBQ; an heretical nun who explores the possibility of a new life by imaginatively excavating the fossils of BC's Burgess Shale; and an ambitious bylaw officer determined to make her mark on the city's streets.

In Echolocation, Karen Hofmann has found new ways to sound the depths of the human heart.

“Part Darwinian, part Ovidian, these are waltzing and desirous tales of transformation, thrumming with verdant light reaching through forest canopies. Hofmann’s characters are strange creatures bumping against one another in the shadows, with cracking voices seeking to connect. And then, when you least expect it, mad leaps from the dark into the light.”
— R.W. Gray, author of Entropic and Crisp

Echolocation is a magical and surreal examination of humanity at the edges of ”
— Kristian Wilson, Bustle

“...lived up to our high ”
— Kerry Clare, 49th Shelf

“Dark stories weave together beauty and cruelty.”
— Rory Runnells, Winnipeg Free Press

“[In 'Virtue Prudence Courage,'] Hofmann’s adjustment of narrative perspective is so masterfully subtle that I had to go back to see when and how exactly this ordinary love story became a weird horror story.” 
— Stephanie L. Lu, Canadian Literature (full review)