Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Precordial Thump
    Precordial Thump
    Precordial Thump
    Ebook104 pages26 minutes

    Precordial Thump

    By Zoe Whittall

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateAug 24, 2018
    ISBN9781550967579
    Precordial Thump
    Author

    Zoe Whittall

    ZOE WHITTALL is the author of five novels, including the recent bestseller The Fake, which was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. The New York Times called her fourth novel The Spectacular, “a highly readable testament to the strength of the maternal bond.” Her third novel The Best Kind of People was shortlisted for The Scotiabank-Giller Prize. Her second novel Holding Still for as Long as Possible won a Lambda Award, and was an American Library Association’s Stonewall Honor Book. Her debut novel Bottle Rocket Hearts won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie prize. She is also a Canadian Screen Award winning TV writer. She lives in Prince Edward County.  

    Read more from Zoe Whittall

    Related to Precordial Thump

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Paul Tremblay

      Jun 17, 2020

      IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF MY BIGGEST FEARS that I would live to see the end of everything,” says Paul Tremblay, speaking to SFX from his Massachusetts home in the middle of lockdown. It’s a singularly peculiar time, and a peculiar interview for him to

      3 min read

    • Article

      Eyes On The Screen

      Jul 20, 2021

      I SAT STARING, slack-jawed, unblinking. The mesmerising, soporific sounds from the television lapped over me. The toddler sitting on my lap was the same. It was intoxicating. This was like the visual equivalent of Valium. I hadn’t watched children’s

      2 min read

    • Article

      Wow Women

      May 19, 2020

      I was thrilled to see that you opened The Fix pages of the April issue with a paragraph about fierce mythological women. It is fabulous to see strong women celebrated in mythology, when in our culture we typically read fairy tales in which women and

      1 min read

    • Article

      I Told You So: Accepting The Invitation To Align With My (Bossy) Intuitive Voice

      Aug 6, 2021

      Estimated reading time: 4 minutes — Intuition is that small voice in the back of my mind telling me when something is off, just right, or completely out of alignment. I like to think of it as a bossy, big sister who protects and guides my path; but

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hide

      May 18, 2022

      RELEASED 24 MAY 256 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Kiersten White Publisher Del Rey “The book you need after Squid Game!” yells the hype for Kiersten White’s latest. Well, sort of. In fact this well-written horror novel feels closer to The C

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tender Is The Flesh

      Jan 29, 2020

      RELEASED 6 FEBRUARY 224 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Augustina Bazterrica Publisher Pushkin Press This is a pretty unpleasant book. It’s clearly meant to be, but knowing that doesn’t make it any less unsettling to read. It’s set in a near future wh

      1 min read

    • Article

      Mother Margaret

      May 3, 2022

      Mother Margaret
      3 min read

    • Article

      NOT YOUR Mother’s LEAGUE

      Aug 16, 2022

      NOT YOUR Mother’s LEAGUE
      6 min read

    • Article

      How to Buy a Used Car During a Wildfire

      Jan 14, 2019

      I do not laugh but the children do. “I hate these fucking places,” I think again, turning the radio back on. The post How to Buy a Used Car During a Wildfire appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Elephant In The City Of Blind

      Feb 6, 2020

      Elephant In The City Of Blind
      5 min read

    • Article

      'The Raven Tower' Rises From Shakespearean Foundations

      Feb 26, 2019

      Ann Leckie's new fantasy novel is packed with family intrigue, throne-room maneuvering and nods to Hamlet in its story of a son who comes home to find his father missing and his uncle in power.

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Last Of The South Girls

      Mar 18, 2021

      The Last Of The South Girls
      18 min read

    • Article

      Mail

      Mar 22, 2022

      Mail
      1 min read

    • Article

      Green Planet

      Jan 13, 2022

      Green Planet
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hippo Jaws

      Oct 1, 2020

      Hippo Jaws
      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Precordial Thump

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Precordial Thump - Zoe Whittall

      GLÜCK

      Precordial Thump

      red rimmed reading glasses, fern green flats

      someone torched The Good Will

      a plastic bag hung around a door handle

      filled with scarves and beads, ready to go

      burnt coffee, pepper clumped, upturned lip

      of a Sealtest cup, your open hand

      when does history start, how do you start

      a heart, with a fist and a caustic order?

      while we play at rape, calling in (so) sick—

      the doorbell rings, a hollow bird call

      we clutch our chests, crack our backs, ignore

      the tinny ring, tell travel and suicide stories

      last spring Abigail hung, by a necklace in the attic

      What was she thinking, not leaving a note?

      there was a pig in Goa behind the hut who

      ate our shit before it hit the ground.

      conjure a single, carefully aimed blow.

      I could put my coat on, I could just

      walk out of work. No one dies from unprocessed

      grant applications. you tattoo my ankle

      with your first initial, take oral inventory

      the ways we’ve almost died

      meningitis, collision, hanging,

      cause and effect, the precordial thump

      is illegal now. I practice it on bread dough, draw X’s.

      I name you Scout, I learn CPR, hold paradox

      hone my compulsions, terrible and incantatory.

      the things I have to do to get by.

      we watch bombings on TV, put our terror

      into context, lucky shame, press nine

      before you dial out, archive hospital bracelets.

      This is my birth name. This is real.

      Stoop Smoke

      On my front stoop, I am narrowing my world view.

      Brains of condensation bead the bottle, I clutch

      the urge to be expansive. I look up when the bus passes

      too fast. The kids rubberneck from the recycling bins

      where they poke at a dead bird with a badminton racquet,

      cheeks puffed with gum. I look down and then

      ahead. I fix a stare like a broken toaster. I keep simple momentum:

      glass to lip, trainer toe to stair. The colour of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1