The Architect of Flowers

The stories in William Lychack's dazzling new collection, The Architect of Flowers, explore the dear and inevitable distance between people in loving relationships and find hope in dark situations. With tiny, precise details, Lychack observes the overlooked moments of everyday life--the small failings between parents and children, the long-held secrets in married life.

A small-town policeman brings himself to shoot a family's injured dog; an old woman secretly trains a crow to steal for her; a hybridizer's wife discovers the perfect lie to bring her family magically together again. Lychack's characters yearn to re-enchant the world, to turn the ordinary and profane into the sacred and beautiful again, to make beauty serve as an antidote to grief. From ghostwriter to ghost runners to ghosts in a chapel, these stories are extraordinary portraits of life's tender humiliations as well as its sharp, rude jolts.


Author: William Lychack
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 03/23/2011
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.39lbs
Size: 8.28h x 5.59w x 0.45d
ISBN: 9780618302437

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/06/2010
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/2011
Library Journal 02/01/2011 pg. 58

About the Author
Lychack, William: - WILLIAM LYCHACK is the author of the novel The Wasp Eater. His work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize, and on public radio's This American Life.