The Truth in the Lie
By Mark Swain
()
About this ebook
A sparkling collection of short stories that entrance us with telling glimpses and powerful insights into people’s lives. In so little precious time we feel we know these characters and what drives them – their secrets, their desires, their fears and their regrets: An art dealer tricked by opportunists during a buying trip to The Cameroon; The surreal life of an old woman who lives in a kitchen cupboard; A young man, camping by a river, drawn to follow a beautiful woman who swims past in the brightness of early morning, and a premiership footballer, reduced to a life of poverty and depression after a career-changing injury. Real people, caught in the author’s spotlight or under his probing microscope.
‘Tales smouldering with intrigue, wit and cunning. We are drawn in by flashes of light, curious aromas, the tantalizing glow of embers, or the fizz and crackle of a roaring fire on a winter’s night.’ STORYTELLER
Mark Swain
Mark Swain was born in Singapore in 1958, where his father was stationed in the RAF. He has lived in many countries, and as a young man found it hard to break the habit of a nomadic life.With a low boredom threshold, Mark has had dozens of jobs and several careers. This provides him with endless source material for short stories and is probably the prime reason for the sense of authenticity people see in his work.Studying Graphic Design at Hastings College of Art at 16, he ran off and joined the Army in search of adventure. Later he found himself travelling the world on the QE2 as a silver-service waiter and going to the Falklands war. Training as a TEFL teacher took him to Tokyo in 1984, where he met his wife Lorna. In 2008 Mark took a year out from a career in Risk Management to cycle 10,000miles from Ireland to Japan with his son. This life-changing decision resulted in them writing Long Road Hard Lessons, which became an Amazon bestseller.Mark and his wife Lorna have three grown-up children and live in Canterbury, Kent. There is not much in his life that he does without passion, although he will do anything to avoid having to dance or empty a kitchen bin. Asked about his ambitions, desires, or his sense of right and wrong, he says, “I trust in instinct. I simply grow towards the light.”Mark particularly enjoys the Short Story form, admiring American short story writers such as Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan and Richard Ford as well as classic short story writers Franz Kafka and Anton Chekov. He is also a great admirer of George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Norman Maclean, Albert Camus and the contemporary travel writer Jonathan Raban.Two collections of Mark's own short stories - including the award winning story 'Special Treatment' - have been released by his UK publisher, Tinderbox Publishing Ltd along with the bestselling "Long Road, Hard Lessons" a non-fiction book with photographs and maps about a 10,000-mile life-changing cycle journey he made with his teenage son from Ireland to Japan.Mark is at home in England, but is constantly drawn back to Asia, Morocco, and to Dingle in Ireland.
Read more from Mark Swain
English down the Pub Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories to Tell Your Dog Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLong Road, Hard Lessons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHis Perilous Throne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpecial Treatment & Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Truth in the Lie
Related ebooks
Skeletons in the Closet & Other Creepy Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trails Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phantom Rickshaw Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Better Than Me: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You'll Be Sorry When I'm Dead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Cut The Cheese?: An A-Mazing Parody About Change and How We Can Get Our Hands On Yours Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Headlock Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Smith's Monthly #17: Smith's Monthly, #17 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDollar Series Volume One: Dollar Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Game of Genes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou Are a Complete Disappointment: A Triumphant Memoir of Failed Expectations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Country Club Wives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot Quite Love Stories Collection: The 'Not-Quite' Love Story Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThornydevils Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Last Time I Was Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Urban Mind State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnnabel Poe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEstranged Behaviour: The Underbelly of Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath Pacts and Left-Hand Paths Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saturday Nights: A Memoir of Adventures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAwakening: Power Sisters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrdinary Mayhem Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Write Way For Love: Moonshine Romances Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUncle Hercules and other lies: 16 Essays about almost nothing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMondo Desperado: A Serial Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cindy's Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Demon That Loved Me (and Wanted to Eat Me): I Hate Zombies Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The City Brigade: The Entire Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Short Stories For You
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Years of the Best American Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skeleton Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ficciones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Tuesdays in Winter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: A Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sour Candy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Explicit Content: Red Hot Stories of Hardcore Erotica Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memory Wall: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Truth in the Lie
0 ratings0 reviews