Fiction. The thirty-three stories in CERTAIN PEOPLE are set in Australia and other exotic locales. The first story, "House Hunting," tells of a successful gentleman who is having a life crisis. His lover has left him for a cook. "The man whose lover left him for a cook" reappears throughout the book, his life slowly crumbling as he recognizes his inability to connect with himself and others. In "The Whore," a young, beautiful wife is ignored by her husband, who is enthralled by the life stories of a middle-aged prostitute. Written in a tactile and painterly manner, the author questions the way we perceive our world and self. In these stories, the world is a place of shifting relations where truths are relative. What one person sees is not the same as another. One's perceptions may change in a flash or not at all. One may cling to people or things long out of sight.

Author City: NEW YORK, NY USA

Roberta Allen is the author of eight books, including two collections of short fiction, The Traveling Woman (Vehicle Editions, 1986) and CERTAIN PEOPLE (Coffee House Press, 2007); a novella in short short stories, THE DAUGHTER (Autonomedia, 1992); a memoir, AMAZON DREAM (City Lights Publishers, 1992); the novel THE DREAMING GIRL (Painted Leaf Press, 2000, and Ellipsis Press, 2011); and several writing guides. Allen was on the faculty of The New School for many years and has also taught at Columbia University. She was a Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction in 1998. An established visual artist, she has exhibited worldwide, with work in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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