Conversation Pieces

Vol. 46 — A Day in Deep Freeze

by Lisa Shapter

$12 $10.00 (paperback)
$5.95 (e-book)	EPUB	MOBI

Read a sample from the book.

Gone, but Never Absent

1963: Emran Greene is a successful corporate accountant, a hopeful soon-to-be-father, and an unremarkable husband-except for the lingering effects of an experimental wartime truth serum, his ex-boyfriend, the impossibility of his conceiving a child, and all of the other secrets he keeps from his wife and his employer. One of these, the secret of the lonely grave he visits regularly in Riverport's Castleview Cemetery, holds a tragedy that just won't stay gone...

Reviews

There's a touch of Philip K. Dick in Shapter's book. The same concerns with paranoia and psychosis are present. The one key difference being that Shapter revels in the long drawn out moments, the slow build towards a climax that remains off-screen, looming and yet to materialize. In this story Emran's success at keeping his life normal is worse than failure, for even as we read there's the hope that Emran will fail to persevere and have to face the truth about what he's done, who he is, and how he lives.  (Read the whole review)
  —My Bookish Ways, Justin Howe, 7/13/2015

Shapter has written that she writes sf in which she uses male characters to tell women's stories, and if A Day in Deep Freeze is any indication it's an effective technique. The novella makes no concessions to the reader—it's a puzzle to figure out what is happening just as much as it is to figure out why—but the end result is a strong piece of writing that takes a interesting premise in an unexpected direction. I think I'll be nominating this for the BSFA.  (Read the whole review)
  —It Doesn't Have To Be Right..., Ian Sales, 12/11/2015

ISBN: 978-1-61976-083-7 (13 digit)
Publication Date: Apr 2015
paperback 84 pages