The Shingle Bar Sea Monster

THE SHINGLE BAR SEA MONSTER AND OTHER STORIES uses surrealism and black humour to explore human predicaments, emotions and aspirations, and to suggest solutions to life's challenges. The situations are extraordinary, the aspirations and emotions are common, and the solutions debatable. A young woman is taken to a sea monster's underwater palace and helps the mermaids preserve seaweed. A girl finds that her right hand can no longer feel. Another girl becomes her younger sister's guardian angel. Two men of different tastes and habits struggle to co-exist after the head of one is grafted to the body of the other. An executive experiences uncontrollable anger after undergoing open-brain surgery. Two sisters continue their childhood rivalry after being reminded of a favourite TV programme. A male scientist is forced to give up the child that he himself gave birth to. On the verge of burnout, a jaded London lawyer heads out to the Mojave desert to set up a new life for herself. Ghosts visit two sisters. A girl hears her dead grandmother speak. A modern day Lady Bluebeard lures men to grisly deaths, but adores her seventh husband and cannot bring herself to kill him. A young woman defends her passion for writing. A blind man in love carries a magical cane that makes flowers bloom on the pavement. An amnesiac builds a new life for himself. During the progress of a new relationship, secrets are revealed. A wife suspects her husband of having an affair with a group of mannequins. A woman flies to New Zealand to begin a new life as a romance novelist. Another woman buys a lighthouse through the encouragement of a friend. A schoolboy learns to levitate and is stoned and drowned by jealous classmates. A man finds the button for rewinding his life. Conjoined twins learn to survive and even thrive in the world. The purchase of a duvet leads to estrangement between an established couple, caused by the woman's extraordinary metamorphosis into a feathered winged creature. Always interesting, these stories - with their often bizarre realities - prompt us to see our own lives from the perspective of others. Do we also live in a somewhat off-centre world? FROM AN EARLY RESPONSE TO THE COLLECTION: "Laura Solomon's stories inhabit the borders between the mundane and the magical. Whether looking for love, or trying to understand a sibling, these stories have a very human heart. Solomon's characters are often looking for answers, and in the process of dealing with their dramas and disappointments they come across those things that can only be glimpsed from the corner of the eye. Sea monsters and angels, head grafts and werewolves, roses blooming from the tip of a blind man's cane.... The fantastic exists, though the miracle can fade with a wrong decision, or an unkind choice. These stories do not provide easy answers: the fantastic does not compensate for foolishness, and there are not always easy explanations. You may be touched by the marvellous, Solomon seems to say, but what happens next is entirely up to you." -- Viki Holmes, Author of "miss moon's class" (Chameleon, 2008), co-editor of "Not A Muse" (Haven 2009).