The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore

"A delicate, artfully arranged collection of very short fictions exploring the overlap between fairy tales and Sawers's Thai heritage. [...] The collection brings to mind a bowl full of colorful, glinting objects: seashells, fruit seeds and flower petals mixed among mirror shards and needles. The 'flash' in the subtitle refers to the pieces' formal brevity, but they also often have the knifing dazzle of bright light against the eyes. Some stories ('Still Life With Conch Shell, ' 'Recipe for Constellations, ' 'Mango Son Theen') are written conventionally; others are numbered lists or focused fragments gesturing at something bigger. Many read like poems intended for performance, or recall enigmatic postage stamps hinting at both a letter's origins and destination.Sawers's autobiographical author's note ought to be read as an integral part of the whole, necessary to its effect. Rose Metal Press describes itself as an independent 'publisher of hybrid genres, ' and 'The Anchored World'--like Maria Romasco Moore's 'Ghostographs' and Sofia and Del Samatar's 'Monster Portraits' before it--is a fine expression of that mission, mixing memoir and fiction, poetry and prose, probing the boundaries between modes."-- "The New York Times"