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International award–winning stories of life and love in the midst of planetary decline
In Planet Earth, Nicholas Ruddock moves nimbly through a range of styles—from conventional to flash-fiction to his unique mastery of the long sentence—in stories exploring themes of love and passion, all with an awareness of our species-specific carelessness burning up the world.
This collection showcases a gifted writer at the top of his game, each story fresh and unexpected: the time Mario Vargas Llosa sucker-punched Gabriel García Márquez at a theatre in Mexico City inspires a young Marxist couple’s violent act of revenge in Toronto years later; an anxious young man finds solace in the employ of Prince, the musician; we get a haunting glimpse of Toronto’s polio epidemic at its peak in 1953; a young Canadian student bears witness to the Algerian protests and police violence in 1961 Paris; a pair of naive young women find themselves involved with a mysterious circus troupe in Nice. These provocative but contemplative stories are paradoxically positive and quick-witted, with a humorous fondness for humans and all our failings.
“Astonishing … [Nicholas Ruddock] has a shape-shifting capacity when he writes.” — Postmedia
“Can a short story dramatize the effects of a warming planet better than a novel? With Planet Earth, Nicholas Ruddock makes a strong case that it can.” — The Literary Review of Canada
"We are lucky to have this trove of prose to read and reread." — The Fiddlehead
“A sharp read, with little twists in each story to shatter what you thought you knew … Another excellent work from Ruddock.” — The Miramichi Reader
“Quick and brilliant.” — Guelph Today
“Ruddock’s stories demand rereading.” — The Seaboard Review