by Thor Garcia

ISBN 978-1-9996964-2-9 (paperback) 270pp
Publication date: May 2011. Equus Press: London. Price: € 8.00 (not including postage).

Order directly from Equus Press, from Bookshop.org, from Barnes and Noble, or via Print-on-Demand ; or try the Kindle version.

By turns defiant, paranoid, brooding, absurd and knock-down funny, Thor Garcia’s debut collection of short stories TUND is a startling creation. Peopled by a galaxy of fringe operators and hoodlums, tattered no-hopers and doom-drenched true believers, sadistic children and tormented hooch hounds — and not least, a girl called Spoogeface — TUND is a swirling landscape of meltdowns, terrifying visions and punch-drunk epiphanies. Irreverent and iconoclastic, it probes the desolation and cruelties, desperation and contradictions, the hazards and hoopla, of life in an unstable and emotionally crippled age. Brimming with riotous panache, anarchic soul and sinewy, exultant writing, TUND is sure to stimulate and dazzle.

“There is a voice, predominant in these stories, always at some distance to itself. Not numbed, maybe, so much as slightly disassociated, tingling, like hands on the verge of sleep. Experiences slide by, then there is some odd prickling. Objects and events are studied, sometimes in detail, but the focus, narrowing in, verges on the absurd. […] The voices and happenings of TUND are not quickly forgettable. The panoramas may mesh together, the paranoias and detachments of the various characters may echo each other, but the overall result is a seductive, disturbing vision of life and one way of relating to it, as spectator to spectacle, as victim to one’s own agency, actions and inactions.”—Spencer Dew, decomP Magazine

“I don’t think I read a stranger collection of short stories all year than Tund. Its author is a bit of a mystery. He’s from Long Beach but has lived in Prague since the mid-’90s. This makes for a peculiar worldview, which probably should be expected from someone with a name like Thor Garcia. Quote: ‘We idled languid, fragrant afternoons in hilly, statue-studded parks; munched flaky pastry at umbrella-shrouded pavilions along the river; stared in mute wonder at elaborate iron lamp posts and exquisite carved wooden door panels; floated across expansive sun-dashed cobblestone mezzanines, fawned over fabulously fusty friezes, frontispieces and fandulas; and roamed a seemingly endless cavalcade of crumbling castles, moss-drenched cemeteries, monstrous vaulted churches, time-encrusted bridges, dusty, decaying monasteries, graceful galleries… Yes, it was Europe–Eastern Europe, to be exact, in the time following what were popularly called revolutions.'”—Jim Ruland, San Diego City Beat

Thor Garcia was born in Long Beach, California. He has worked as a journalist in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Prague, Czech Republic. His books include the novel The News Clown (Equus Press, 2012) and the story collection Only Fools Die of Heartbreak (Equus, 2013).