Under the Dam
Including the original short story that inspired the major motion picture 45 Years
In the middle of a speech a businessman realises his soul has just left his body... In an Athens marketplace, a jealous lover finds himself staggering through a vision of hell.... High in the Alps, a young woman’s body re-appears in the glacier, perfectly preserved, where she fell 50 years before....
Entering Constantine’s stories is like stepping out into a wind of words, a swarm of language. His prose is as fluid as the water that surges and swells through all his landscapes. Yet, against this fluidity, his stories are able to stop time, to freeze-frame each protagonist’s life just at the moment when the past breaks the surface, or when the present - like the dam of the title - collapses under its own weight.
Features 'In Another Country' - recently been adapted for the big screen '45 Years' starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay.
Press
"Flawless and unsettling." - Boyd Tonkin, Books of the Year 2005, The Independent
“I started reading these stories quietly, and then became obsessed, read them all fast, and started re-reading them again and again. They are gripping tales, but what is startling is the quality of the writing. Every sentence is both unpredictable and exactly what it should be. Reading them is a series of short shocks of (agreeably envious) pleasure...– AS Byatt, Book of the Week, The Guardian
“A superb collection” – Nicholas Royle, The Independent
“This is a haunting collection filled with delicate clarity. Constantine has a sure grasp of the fear and fragility within his characters.” – A. L. Kennedy
David Constantine reads his story ‘The Loss’, recorded for THRESHOLDS by the Arvon Foundation at their writers’ retreat in Totleigh Barton, 2013.
Buy Hard Copy
Retail Price £9.99
Online Price £8.75
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Book Details
- ISBN-10
- 0954828011
- ISBN-13
- 9780954828011
- Published
- 1 Apr 2005
About the Author
More by David Constantine
Tea at the Midland
The characters in David Constantine’s fourth collection are often delicately caught in moments of defiance. Constantine’s bewitching, finely-wrought stories give us permission to escape.
The Shieling
The characters in David Constantine’s remarkable new collection are united by an urge to absent themselves, to abscond from the intolerable pressures of normal life and withdraw into strange ideas, political causes, even private languages.
The Life-Writer
A new novel, written by critically acclaimed short story writer, David Constantine.
In Another Country: Selected Stories
Gathering together stories from over two decades of writing, this selection demonstrates why Constantine has been hailed as ‘perhaps the finest of contemporary writers in this form’. Featuring the story that inspired the motion picture, 45 Years.
The Dressing-Up Box
Much-anticipated fifth collection by decorated short story writer, previous winner of the BBC National Short Story Award and the Frank O‘Connor International Short Story Award.
The Dressing-Up Box
Paperback edition of David Constantine's acclaimed fifth collection of stories, confirming his place as one of the greatest living British short story writers and following undefended children and lost adults as they face the outside world.