The Ugliest House in the World

Synopsis

Ranging from the Welsh valleys to the Malaysian jungle, from Coventry to Natal, the eight stories in this original and elegant collection are filled with unlikely characters and striking juxtapositions. In one story two infamous American bandits herd ostriches in Patagonia, while in another, a self-styled John Wayne leads a band of local revolutionaries, the Silver Screen Platoon, in Southeast Asia. In England, a couple of unemployed men wait for Lady Godiva to appear and the pubs to open, while, on the other side of the world, a young Chinese man searches for underwater demons. Alongside a quirky, pointed humour, these pieces reveal a deep humanity. In the understated title story, the accidental death of a child forces a father and son to confront deeper questions of guilt and responsibility; in 'A Union', a prolonged strike at a Welsh slate quarry is the backdrop for an acutely sensitive portrayal of a marriage; and in 'I Don't Know, What Do You Think?', a man working for a crisis phone-line learns that redemption is far from simple. Peter Ho Davies' eccentric, heartbreaking stories of small lives affected by consequential events, herald the arrival of an engaging and powerful new voice in fiction.