Instructions for the Drowning, Steven Heighton
Instructions for the Drowning, Steven Heighton
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
Club: $8.49

Instructions for the Drowning

Author: Steven Heighton

Narrator: Amos Crawley

Unabridged: 5 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: ECW Press

Published: 05/04/2023


Synopsis

“To say Heighton is an immensely talented writer is true enough but insufficient ... As good a writer as Canada has ever produced.” — National Post The unforgettable last collection by the bestselling author of The Shadow Boxer A man recalls his father's advice on how to save a drowning person, but struggles when the time comes to use it. A wife’s good deed leaves a couple vulnerable at the moment when they’re most in need of security—the birth of their first child. Newly in love, a man preoccupied by accounts of freak accidents is befallen by one himself. In stories about love and fear, idealisms and illusions, failures of muscle and mind and all the ways we try to care for one another, Steven Heighton’s Instructions for the Drowning is an indelible last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Penn on May 15, 2023

Stories as powerful as they are poignant, given the untimely death of such a great writer, sorely missed. On the last two pages, the narrator as “I” appears for the first time, in the midst of prayer flags fluttering down a Nepali mountain: “They were charting the wind’s convoluted patterns… I was w......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on June 19, 2023

Beautifully written and full of emotion; these detailed stories remind us that deep down what we may not want to face is what makes us truly human.......more

Goodreads review by Alex on April 30, 2024

Exceptional. These stories are intimate, tender, and infinitely human. Heighton writes with superb precision and elegance. It’s astonishing what he is able to do in such a short span. Truly masterful.......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on July 23, 2024

A very uneven story collection. Some good stories, but no perfect ones, near the end, and some pretty bad ones near the beginning. Liked the last story Stages of Gordon J. Whitehead and the plastic surgeon one and the AIDS one.......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on July 03, 2023

The typical short story collection, with my typical reaction: a default middle rating of 3 stars, based on a range of stories ranging from the razor sharp & compelling (Who Now Lies Sleeping) to the left-a-complete-blank-on-my-consciousness (Expecting). A bit of something for every reader here.......more