The Architect of Flowers - Paperback

by William Lychack (Author)

The stories in William Lychack's dazzling new collection, The Architect of Flowers, explore the dear and inevitable distance between people in loving relationships and find hope in dark situations. With tiny, precise details, Lychack observes the overlooked moments of everyday life--the small failings between parents and children, the long-held secrets in married life.

A small-town policeman brings himself to shoot a family's injured dog; an old woman secretly trains a crow to steal for her; a hybridizer's wife discovers the perfect lie to bring her family magically together again. Lychack's characters yearn to re-enchant the world, to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again, to make beauty serve as an antidote to grief. From ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, these stories are extraordinary portraits of life's tender humiliations as well as its sharp, rude jolts.

Back Jacket

In heart-rending, gorgeous prose, each story mines the grace and brutality of everyday life and leaves the reader slightly rearranged, and better for it. Lychack is a truly original writer. Kate Walbert, author of A Short History of Women

The stories in William Lychack s dazzling new collection explore the dear and inevitable distance between people in loving relationships, and find hope in dark situations. With tiny, perfect details, Lychack observes the overlooked moments of everyday life the small failings between parents and children, the long-held secrets in a marriage. From ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, his characters yearn to reenchant the world and to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again. "The prose rises to a level of intense lyricism that distinguishes this lovely, artful collection." Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan "It is a poetry of narrative rarely ever found in fiction." Mary McGarry Morris, author of The Last Secret WILLIAM LYCHACK is the author of the novel The Wasp Eater. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, and on public radio s This American Life."