Only and Ever This

(Paperback)

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Description

An intense, surreal story of family and growing up, perfect for fans of Matt Bell and The Immortalists.

A mother clings to twin sons, desperate to keep them from becoming their father, a pirate forever sailing away. In this rain-soaked township, she will attempt to mummify them, piece by piece, to stop them from growing up, a hope founded in magic and immortality. Meanwhile, their father obsesses the seas with his own belief in ever-lasting life, learning too late that his heart belongs on shore.

In Only and Ever This, a family must endure father loss, a mothers grief, and roiling adolescence, slipping as it does into arcades, caves, and the young love for a ghostly girl up the street.

Reviews

J.A. Tylers Only & Ever This is a rollicking adventure about brotherhood and family, marriage and grief, childhood and piracyperfect for fans of Peter Markus and Justin Torres and Stranger Things and Treasure Island. (As everyone should be.) This book hums with the sincerity of all true quests: dont hesitate to answer its call. Matt Bell, author of Appleseed

"A moving, lyrical cyclone of a book. This is a novel of bodies and families, ghosts and doubles, failures of presence and absence. I lingered on every page, until reminded of the miracle that even more waited ahead, underneath, around, within." Jac Jemc, author of Empty Theatre and The Grip of It

On the surface its a sea tale, but deeper its something else. A fantasy mother who mummifies her children, a fantasy father always at sea, and a feast of other oddities. Its a masterfully-written book that will make you think more than twice about everything. David Ohle, author of Motorman

Author Bio

J. A. Tyler is the author of The Zoo, a Going (Dzanc Books). His fiction has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Haydens Ferry Review, Black Warrior Review, Fairy Tale Review, and The Brooklyn Rail among others. He has given workshops and readings at universities and writing conferences around the U.S., including AWP, Lake Forests &Now series, the National Writing Project at Colorado State University, and the Bankhead Visiting Writers Series at the University of Alabama. He lives in Colorado.