Furnace [Paperback]

Wayne Price is a natural - one of those writers destined to be so from their arrival in the world. He has a natural understanding of people (what divides and what connects), and a natural ear for how they speak. This is a terrific debut collection of short stories, only proving how complete an author he already is. --Ronald Frame, author of The Lantern Bearers, Permanent Violet and Bluette

In this first published collection of short stories, Wayne Price displays a masterful command of a notoriously tricky form… a collection that truly impresses with its breadth, precision and confidence. --Scotland on Sunday

This debut collection of short stories is being hailed as the emergence of a new talent, a claim I'm tempted to take seriously... --The Herald

The stories are raw and precise... What makes the characters interesting is the author's keen eye for how people behave when they think no one is watching... Price has a rare gift... These are extremely confident short stories. --The Skinny

This is a heraldic collection. The short stories of Wayne Price are of both incandescent restraint and dynamic range; many of these seemingly quiet tales rise to that supreme level: namely some of the best short stories written anywhere in recent years.' --Alan Warner, author of Morvern Callar, The Sopranos, The Man Who Walks and The Stars in the Bright Sky

Wayne Price is one of the most impressive writers of his generation. Like Raymond Carver, he is as accomplished a poet as he is a short story writer, and the two disciplines complement each other perfectly. He has the poet's eye and ear allied to a gift for spare narrative, and that is a powerful combination. He is one of the few writers I know for whom the comparison with Carver is not fanciful he really is that good, and this first collection marks the arrival of a major talent. --Alan Spence, author of Its Colours They Are Fine, The Magic Flute, Way to Go and The Pure Land

Wayne Price celebrates ordinary lives where people can find themselves trapped in a confused and often terrifying present. These carefully constructed, honest stories capture a moment or event that will reverberate, revealing the ways dignity and stoicism help those who do not see themselves as victims endure feelings they are unable to describe or understand. They also herald a significant new arrival. --Carl MacDougall, author of The Devil and The Giro, The Lights Below and The Casanova Papers

These keenly observed stories probe fatherhood, sexuality, displacement and the unfathomable strangeness of the other, offering no easy solutions. Many are resolved with a Zen-like pulling away from the foreground action to contemplate a broader natural order or to reach for a universal, resonant image... And they always linger in the mind long after reading. --Brian McCabe, author of The Other McCoy, A Date with My Wife and Zero

Wayne Price was born in south Wales in 1965 and has lived and worked in Scotland since 1987. He has won many international prizes for his short stories and poetry and his work has been widely published in anthologies and journals including The Bridport Prize Anthology, Stand Magazine, Carve Magazine, Edinburgh Review and Gutter. He teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Aberdeen.