In an Uncharted Country [Paperback]

Clifford Garstang (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2009

The award-winning stories that make up this linked collection showcase ordinary men and women in and around Rugglesville, Virginia, as they struggle to find places and identities in their families and the community. They experience natural disasters, a sun-worshipping cult, Vietnam flashbacks, kidnapping, addiction, and loss. The book's opening story, "Flood, 1978," follows Hank, who comes to understand his father's deep sense of grief over the death of his wife. Later, in "Hand-painted Angel," Hank's sons see the family spinning apart as their father ages and family secrets are disclosed. In "The Clattering of Bones," Walt mourns the collapse of his marriage after the loss of a child, but in the collection's title story he recognizes his emotional need for family. The concluding story, "Red Peony," unifies the collection, as many of the book's characters come together for a tumultuous 4th of July Celebration.

Awards:

• Gold Medal, Best Fiction-Mid-Atlantic, Independent Publisher (IPPY)
• Maria Thomas Fiction Award (Peace Corps Worldwide)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If Clifford Garstang's stories were a city, they wouldn't be a place you would have heard much about. But if you happened to settle there, you wouldn't want to leave." --Peace Corps Worldwide

"Read Garstang for his handle on craft, his ability to imply. Read the book because it's a navigational tool. With clear-eyed precision, it maps the unseen. . . It grants sight of others' private days."  --Mid-American Review

"Garstang's collection is a hopeful, heartfelt book, the stories of people struggling with and against one another and finding mutual territory in which to breathe and be content." --The Virginian-Pilot

"Garstang is an authentic, sometimes brilliant story teller and In an Uncharted Country is a fabulous debut collection."  --The Short Review

From the Back Cover

"This collection delivers on its title: each story takes us into an area--emotional and geographic--that we may not have been before. There is an impressive variety here, and Garstang's ability as a storyteller is on display each time. These characters are real, vulnerable, and always, in unique ways, brave." --Elizabeth Strout, author of Pulitzer Prize-winner Olive Kitteridge

"In an Uncharted Country is an impeccably written, sumptuously imagined, and completely enchanting book of stories, each with its own high ambitions, each successful both as prose and as story. Clifford Garstang is the real thing--a writer loaded with talent. And this book is a reminder of the delightful miracles a good story can perform in a reader's heart." -- Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried and National Book Award-winner Going After Cacciato.

"In an Uncharted Country is a subtly braided collection of spare, taut stories that conjures a community and a way of life with respect, affection and intimacy. Clifford Garstang often captures his characters at sharp moments of loss, but it is their dogged perseverance in the face of those losses that make these figures move us." -- Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl and winner of the 2008 PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Press 53; 1ST edition (August 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982441673
• ISBN-13: 978-0982441671
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,221,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clifford Garstang grew up in the Midwest and received a BA from Northwestern University. After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Korea, he earned an MA in English and a JD, both from Indiana University, and practiced international law in Singapore, Chicago, and Los Angeles with one of the largest law firms in the United States. Subsequently, he earned an MPA in International Development from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and worked for Harvard Law School as a legal reform consultant in Almaty, Kazakhstan. From 1996 to 2001, he was Senior Counsel for East Asia at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where his work concentrated on China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Garstang received an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte in 2003. His work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, The Ledge, The Baltimore Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Potomac Review and elsewhere, and has received Distinguished Mention in the Best American Series. He won the 2006 Confluence Fiction Prize and the 2007 GSU Review Fiction Prize and is a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable journey, November 12, 2009

By 

T. Long "Tom" (Shenandoah Valley, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In an Uncharted Country (Paperback)

Raw and rainy days, a warm fire, and a good book seem to go well together. In that spirit, I recommend IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY by Clifford Garstang, a Shenandoah Valley author. You can easily read the dozen short stories in a morning while listening to rain pecking on the window and rising to occasionally stoke the fire.

Garstang has written short stories about everyday folks in and around the fictional town of Rugglesville located in western Virginia. Several connected directly to my life, my experiences, my hopes and dreams... I think I've even been to Rugglesville. I suspect many of these stories will relate to your world as well. In others I heard echos of neighbors or family dealing with all the twists and turns of life. While all the stories are compelling and thought-provoking, I was most moved by "Flood, 1978" and "The Clattering of Bones."

It wasn't until I got into the second half of IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY that I began to realize how these seemingly unrelated stories were interconnected in a way that brought a deeper richness and meaning to all of the characters and their experiences. It all came rushing together in the last story, "Red Peony."

Okay, I'll admit I read one story a day over a couple weeks. But, if you read IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY in one sitting by the fire or over a couple weeks matters little. Either way, Garstang will take you on an emotional, geographical, and psychological journey where you may just discover a little more about yourself and your own town.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to put down short story collection, November 4, 2009

By 

Stefanie Freele (Geyserville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In an Uncharted Country (Paperback)

Usually, I like to savor short story collections - read a story here or there and make the book last. With "In An Uncharted Country" I couldn't put the book down. Some of the characters and stories are loosely linked and that may be one reason I had to keep going. Another reason - the book is damn good. The writing is tight, the characters well-done and unpredictable, the the settings rich. "In An Uncharted Country" the book is complete. Garstang has done quite an admirable job.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Charting the country of the heart, October 14, 2009

By 

Elizabeth McCullough (Charlottesville VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In an Uncharted Country (Paperback)

At last, a collection of short stories that speaks authentically to the depth of longing in every man or woman's heart. These stories, which link the residents of the fictional small town of Rugglesville, Va., are deceptively expansive in the way they explore the "uncharted country" of grief, disappointment, and loneliness. And yet this book is far from depressing -- there's plenty of humor, as well as the kind of dead-on insight that causes you to nod your head in agreement as you read. I highly recommend this collection to lovers of the traditional short story, to residents and escapees of "quiet" country towns, and to anyone who appreciates fine literature of the human condition.