ABOUT THE BOOK
Palm's Foster Home for Peculiar Stories is a collection of short fiction written by C. G Salamander.
In this book you will find: English colonizes; Somalian pirates; Somalian pirates pretending to be English colonizers; a few spies; a zombie with an existential crisis; an evil bowl of soup; a ghost cow; a priest stuck in a chicken's body; a few vamp-iyers; some backup dancers; a couple of orphaned brothers; God; some rowdy farm animals; a mad scientist; Death and all his friends; an incompetent angel; some deranged occultists; some not so deranged occultists.
You will also find: an armadillo; a few porcupine; an effigy; a ghost named Prya; some advice on stalking; wasp creatures who start conversations; a T-Rex; and a very old man.
In this book you will find: English colonizes; Somalian pirates; Somalian pirates pretending to be English colonizers; a few spies; a zombie with an existential crisis; an evil bowl of soup; a ghost cow; a priest stuck in a chicken's body; a few vamp-iyers; some backup dancers; a couple of orphaned brothers; God; some rowdy farm animals; a mad scientist; Death and all his friends; an incompetent angel; some deranged occultists; some not so deranged occultists.
You will also find: an armadillo; a few porcupine; an effigy; a ghost named Prya; some advice on stalking; wasp creatures who start conversations; a T-Rex; and a very old man.
Paperback: 264 pages
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
It was exactly fifteen years ago that C. G Salamander realized he was different from all the other Chinese Giant Salamanders. As a child C. G Salamander hated living in the muddy crevices along the river banks, and so he decided to leave the Yangtze river and set out on a quest to find himself.
He spent days travelling across the vast terrains of china and finally reached the foothills of the Himalayas. With nowhere to go, and equipped with a childlike sense of wonder for a compass, C. G Salamander began scaling the Himalayas where he would later enroll himself in a monastery. During his time in the mountains, he was taught how to read and write by foreigners who’d come to partake in the mountain’s rich culture and cheap herbage.
He spent most of his time in meditation, and eventually learned how to move objects with his mind.After spending a decade in the Himalayas, C.G Salamander traveled south to the city of Chennai, and has remained there ever since. He now spends his time telekinetically moving pens and pencils across paper.Palm’s Foster Home for Peculiar Stories is his first book.
Source: C.G. Salamander
The Review:
C. G. Salamander had personally signed the review copy he'd sent me. A long time ago. And I kept telling him that I'd review his book as soon as I got a chance to read it. I got several chances to read it - and I did.
Then I kept telling him that I'd review it as soon as I found sometime. It is a wonder how he is so patient. Because had this been the other way round, I would have driven him crazy by now.
So without further ado - here's my two paise on the brilliantly written book.
I did not know what to expect from this book because no one has ever written a book quite like this one in the Indian English market. In fact, the stories reminded me of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
Palm's Foster Home for Peculiar Stories is divided into three short novellas. And while the latter two made me smile as I progressed with the stories, it was the first one (Nigel: The last Brit in India) that left a lasting impression on me. I was highly amused by the second novella where the soup is animated. (I had imagined flashes of what it would feel like if soup began talking to me...in fact, since I had soup for dinner, it probably is not a good idea to get into this now.)
I would encourage everyone to grab a copy of this book and go through the stories, because of the sheer wit and humor in the stories. I can see a national bestselling author in the making. And I will hope, that I am not wrong.
Salamander, apologies on the very late review. And more apologies for this not getting into the little nitty gritty's of your work. But I am afraid if I begin gushing about your book I will not stop. I stand by the Facebook post I'd made on my page.
It was after a long time that someone could make me fall in love with words again. So thank you for the gift of the amazing fantastical stories. Keep writing.
Next time, I'm buying your book.
P.S. - Dude, Ruskin Bond read and LOVED your book!! How do the opinions of the rest of us mere mortals even count after that???
P.S. - Dude, Ruskin Bond read and LOVED your book!! How do the opinions of the rest of us mere mortals even count after that???
RATING:
I look forward to reading this.
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