“Seyward Goodhand writes with the soul of a genius taxidermist—so much fur torn from flesh to create works of brutal beauty. Like an Angela Carter hopped up on Black Beauties, Goodhand reinvents fairy tale and myth as complex moral quandaries. Intensely visceral—the body is here in all its blood and stink and hungering flesh—and deeply intelligent, Even That Wildest Hope surges with a delinquent passion and bravado originality rarely seen on the page. Devour these stories before they devour you.” Zsuzsi Gartner, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist for Better Living Through Plastic Explosives
“Read any sentence in this collection and you will know that Seyward Goodhand is a rare and original talent. Her lush and uncanny prose is like a funhouse mirror that reveals as much as it distorts. These are beautiful stories and a terrific debut.” David Bezmozgis, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist forThe Betrayers, and author of The Free World, & Natasha
“Even That Wildest Hope is a dark, gleaming, and sophisticated collection. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Ancient and futuristic, these post-human stories seem to have an intelligence all their own. This book is unnerving, satisfying, and mysterious. It blew me away.” Sarah Selecky, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist for This Cake is for the Party, and author of Radiant Shimmering Light
“Goodhand creates new worlds out of pure energy, then splits them apart to reveal our wounded planet, our all too recognizable selves: ludicrously dangerous, pathetically greedy, lusting after destruction—and longing for love, always love. Astonishing. She had me at the first two sentences. It was a wonderful, unnerving read.” Pauline Holdstock, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist for Beyond Measure
“It’s a relief to find this kind of daring in Canadian fiction… a welcome corrective to the kind of morally corrective fiction that, in the end, doesn’t unsettle us. It was Kafka himself who said: “A book must be the axe for the frozen seas within us.” Goodhand’s axe is well-sharpened, and its blows echo.” Patricia Robertson at CNQ
“Even That Wildest Hope is a dizzying arrangement of gender and sexual politics, contemporary questions of ethics and monsters under the bed… these are well-crafted stories that are ultimately worthy of the attention they demand.” Brenna Clarke Gray at EVENT
“This deeply unsettling collection stunningly, skillfully unveils the better and the worse of keeping human.” Kate Finegan at PRISM international
“This collection takes on a Grimm fairy tale-like approach to the short story. I also found it very, very bold because the author, Seyward Goodhand, is relatively young… Even in all the fantastical storytelling and all the fantastical settings and the people and everything—it’s so rooted in normal human desires and normal human tropes and feelings.” Mary Berg on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter
“Some of these stories, such as the opening Enkidu (The Epic of Gilgamesh, redux) and So I Can Win, the Galatrax Must Die, bring to mind the off-kilter worlds of Paige Cooper. But my favourites here are the maybe quieter but still pleasantly bizarre Pastoral and The Parachute.” Jade Colbert at The Globe and Mail
Available here: Invisible Publishing; McNally Robinson
“Read any sentence in this collection and you will know that Seyward Goodhand is a rare and original talent. Her lush and uncanny prose is like a funhouse mirror that reveals as much as it distorts. These are beautiful stories and a terrific debut.” David Bezmozgis, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist forThe Betrayers, and author of The Free World, & Natasha
“Even That Wildest Hope is a dark, gleaming, and sophisticated collection. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Ancient and futuristic, these post-human stories seem to have an intelligence all their own. This book is unnerving, satisfying, and mysterious. It blew me away.” Sarah Selecky, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist for This Cake is for the Party, and author of Radiant Shimmering Light
“Goodhand creates new worlds out of pure energy, then splits them apart to reveal our wounded planet, our all too recognizable selves: ludicrously dangerous, pathetically greedy, lusting after destruction—and longing for love, always love. Astonishing. She had me at the first two sentences. It was a wonderful, unnerving read.” Pauline Holdstock, Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist for Beyond Measure
“It’s a relief to find this kind of daring in Canadian fiction… a welcome corrective to the kind of morally corrective fiction that, in the end, doesn’t unsettle us. It was Kafka himself who said: “A book must be the axe for the frozen seas within us.” Goodhand’s axe is well-sharpened, and its blows echo.” Patricia Robertson at CNQ
“Even That Wildest Hope is a dizzying arrangement of gender and sexual politics, contemporary questions of ethics and monsters under the bed… these are well-crafted stories that are ultimately worthy of the attention they demand.” Brenna Clarke Gray at EVENT
“This deeply unsettling collection stunningly, skillfully unveils the better and the worse of keeping human.” Kate Finegan at PRISM international
“This collection takes on a Grimm fairy tale-like approach to the short story. I also found it very, very bold because the author, Seyward Goodhand, is relatively young… Even in all the fantastical storytelling and all the fantastical settings and the people and everything—it’s so rooted in normal human desires and normal human tropes and feelings.” Mary Berg on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter
“Some of these stories, such as the opening Enkidu (The Epic of Gilgamesh, redux) and So I Can Win, the Galatrax Must Die, bring to mind the off-kilter worlds of Paige Cooper. But my favourites here are the maybe quieter but still pleasantly bizarre Pastoral and The Parachute.” Jade Colbert at The Globe and Mail
Available here: Invisible Publishing; McNally Robinson