Coulrophobia and Fata Morgana

Fiction. Jacob Appel's narratives pull you in from the first entrance of their characters, whether it's a woman picking up her errant grandson from the police station, or two US-Canadian border guards with too much time to kill. The portraits are sharp and perceptive, with a vivid sense of scene. They can also be quietly devastating, as in the love story Counting , or bitterly funny, as in Saluting the Magpie , which is to say that Appel is a writer of versatility and verve. COULROPHOBIA & FATA MORGANA is a collection that renews my faith in storytelling." David Galef"