A collection of stories from the bestselling author of MAMMOTH.

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Winner of the 2022 Aurealis Awards.

 

A grizzly bear goes on the run after eating a teenager. A hotel room participates in an unlikely conception. A genetically altered platypus colony puts on an art show. A sabretooth tiger falls for the new addition to his theme park. An airline seat laments its last useful day. A Shakespearean monkey test pilot launches into space.

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The stories in HERE BE LEVIATHANS take us from the storm drains under Las Vegas to the Alaskan wilderness; the rainforests of Queensland to the Chilean coastline. Narrated in Chris Flynn's unique and hilarious style by animals, places, objects and even the (very) odd human, these stories push the boundaries of the form by examining human behaviour from the perspective of the outsider.

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For more info on HERE BE LEVIATHANS, visit the UQP website. uqp.com.au

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"Here Be Leviathans is a joy of a collection; one that's brimming with imagination and emotion. It'll make you laugh, think, and maybe even cry - sometimes all in the same story. Here Be Leviathans highlights Chris Flynn as one of Australia's most unique and compelling writers. Quite probably my favourite book of 2022." THE AU REVIEW

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"The sheer audacity of Flynn's imagination is a bracing and liberating thing, and what could easily have turned into aimless whimsy is elevated by the author's bullseye wit. This hilarious provocative collection effortlessly skewers human vice and folly." SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

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"Like looking at a Salvador Dali painting, or reading Etgar Keret, Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges or Aesop." ABC RADIO NATIONAL

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"Luminescent experiments in narrative voice. Flynn is a restless experimenter, a fabulist. He works in such humour, voice and empathy the stories can't help but move you." GUARDIAN

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"Hooks you in from its opening sentence. All these stories produce a sense of wonder over the possibilities of life on Earth and how we interact with/disrupt the natural order. A collection not to miss." THE BIG ISSUE

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"With Here Be Leviathans Chris Flynn displays his extraordinary range as a fiction writer. His stories are sharply rendered, tender, wild, beautiful, and delivered with emotional power." TONY BIRCH

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"Here Be Leviathans presents Chris Flynn as the maestro of the wryly compelling non-human narrator, whether it's grizzly bear, platypus, sabretooth tiger, hotel room, or airline seat. But his motley humans are equally deft at defamiliarising the assumptions by which we operate and illuminating our penchant for rattling ineffectually around in prisons of our own making. These stories are funny and smart about embracing possibility, and compassion for the forgotten, and acknowledging a natural order larger and more powerful than we will ever be." JIM SHEPARD

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"A deeply experimental collection filled with intriguing stories, such as the amazing 'A Beautiful and Unexpected Turn', whereby a room acts as narrator and parent. A fascinating conversation with past and new experimental styles in Irish writing, reminiscent of Eimear McBride's work." CERIDWEN DOVEY

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"Clearly Chris Flynn didn't get the memo about what's possible in fiction or, if he did, Here Be Leviathans barged in and ate his copy. This is a remarkable feat of imagination, and daring, as he finds voices in places no writer has before and makes the absolute most of them. Expect anything from this book, and it will still exceed your expectations. This is not a story collection. It's a drug none of us knew existed." NICK EARLS