SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2017
Fascinating literary short stories for fans of Yukio Mishima, Philip Roth, and Junot Diaz
In Jerusalem's Old City a young priest and a dominatrix converse in the dying light; on Oregon's windswept coast a fragile woman discovers a body washed up on the beach after a storm; and in Postwar Japan a young protege watches his master's corpse burn, with bitter thoughts blazing in his mind. Jerusalem Ablaze: Stories of Love and Other Obsessions collects thirteen eclectic works of dark fiction, taking the reader from Los Angeles to the eastern townships of Quebec, and from Tokyo to Jerusalem.
Ortega-Medina's characters are flawed, broken individuals, trying their best to make sense of their lives as they struggle with sexuality, death, obsession, and religion. Sometimes bleak, occasionally violent, and often possessed of a dark humour, this major debut explores the imperfections of life and the unpredictability of death.
REVIEWS
"Ortega-Medina’s prose is elegant and potent throughout, with visceral passages bathed in lyricism…" - KIRKUS REVIEWS
"[B]eautifully wrought, deeply unnerving...Ortega-Medina holds a mirror up to our darkest thoughts and urges - while showing the oneness of the human condition" - THE IRISH NEWS
"[Ortega-Medina] is at his best at his most explosive – when he lets his sensationalist side loose – and the wilder the better. I felt the emergence of an exciting, original talent." - JEWISH RENAISSANCE
"A tremendous dichotomy of a read and a real page-turner" - G SCENE MAGAZINE
"A sparkling collection of short stories that will leave you clamouring for more...a diamond among a sea of cubic zirconia" - BREAKAWAY REVIEWS
"A rich, varied, thought-provoking and eye-opening collection" - BOOKMUNCH
"Dark and mysterious short stories set around the world" - TRIP FICTION
"An alternately dark, emotional, tender, and violent contemporary collection that I enjoyed greatly. Highly recommended" - RAVEN CRIME READS
"Finely woven and intelligently written" - JAFFA READS TOO
ADVANCE PRAISE
"Atmospheric and enticingly mysterious" - CHRISTOPHER FOWLER, Author of the Bryant and May mystery novels