In these stories of the surreal mundanity of office life and obscure tensions at sea, Melville’s darkly modern sensibility plunges us into a world of irony and mystery, where nothing is as it first appears. A lawyer hires a new copyist, only to be met with stubborn, confounding resistance. A cynical lightning rod salesman plies his trade by exploiting fears in stormy weather.

After boarding a beleaguered Spanish slave ship, an American trader’s cheerful outlook is repeatedly shadowed by paralyzing unease.

Format: Paperback
Published: UK, 2021
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Pages: 256
Language: English
ISBN 13: 9781782277460
ISBN 10: 1782277463