Enchantment



"In an essay titled "Good Readers and Good Writers," Vladimir Nabokov argued that, while major writers are both storytellers and teachers, "above all, a great writer is always a great enchanter."

And with Nabokov's dictate in mind, it is difficult to think of a better title for Thaisa Frank's captivating collection of new and selected stories than "Enchantment." The follow-up to Frank's recent novel "Heidegger's Glasses," as well as her third compilation of short fiction, "Enchantment" has a marvelous, dreamlike quality - the sort of book that is not so much read as it is experienced, a spellbinding blend of flash fiction, short stories and novellas that also move seamlessly and pleasingly from the concrete and the surreal, the historical and the fantastic (often within the same narrative).

Like many great story collections, "Enchantment" is a book that teaches the reader how to read it as they move through its pages, and with that passage from "The Mapmaker" to contemplate, it soon becomes apparent that Frank is writing what she knows about - that in her varied, imaginative and often metaphorical means of capturing emotional truth, she has created an honest, affecting and mesmerizing book, one that shines powerfully and unforgettably with that wonderful sense of enchantment of which Nabokov speaks."
San Francisco Chronicle

The title of this collection hints at its contents—delectable stories with touches of the surreal as well as many plot twists and surprises. From short-short story to novella, each narrative demonstrates mastery of the genre. Frank’s style is tightly controlled and lyrical, yet contains a richness of detail that seamlessly integrates fantasy elements and magic realism. Readers will note the frequent recurrence of themes of abandonment, withdrawal, and disappearance, and characters reappear in person and by reference from story to story. Humor, subtly introduced, lightens weighty subjects. In “The White Coat,” a woman in an unnamed country cultivates another to experience the magic of a coat that makes people in a snowy landscape immune from detection. “A Brief History of Camouflage” introduces a woman whose desire to disappear leads her to epic feats of tailoring. “The Mapmaker” depicts, in a cycle of 18 stories, a daughter’s relationship with the mother who tried to strangle her when she was three. This book will circulate in libraries with readers of literary fiction. 
— Booklist

“Thaisa Frank’s Enchantment serves the reader small, jeweled worlds of wonder— contortionists and circus masters, enchanted men and vampires, angel channelers and Pre-Raphaelites. This powerful and unforgettable collection shows the mortal challenges faced by even the most extraordinary characters.”
—Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone

"Enchantment explores the shadows at the edges of our lives, and the estless truths that inhabit them. Thaisa Frank's prose is pitch-perfect, as is her instinct for exploring the unspoken hungers of the human spirit.These are stories of startling beauty, boldly imagined and finely wrought."
Carolina de Robertis, author of Perla

"When I first came upon the short stories of Thaisa Frank...I felt as though I'd fallen through the rabbit hole. Now, with Enchantment, Frank stuns once again. These stories, magical in every way, unexpected at every turn, seem to come from a different universe. No one writes likes Thaisa Frank. A definitive volume from an inimitable storyteller."
Michelle Richmond, author of  The Year of Fog

 "Frank continually startles us. She alerts us to the fact that we are alway son the edge, never knowing who we are, why we live, why we exist."  
Irving Malin, Review of Contempoary Fiction

"Frank's voice could be said to occupy the shadowy land between poetry and prose--at times strong in narrative, more often fantastic, transfixed by the possibilities of metaphor."  
The New York Times

"In the spell-like, poetic fiction of Thaisa Frank, the fantastic is never far from the ordinary....Call it "comestic magical realism,' call it the work of a West Coast I.B. Singer, it's fiction that packs an emotional punch that will leave the reader gasping."
—The San Fransisco Chronicle