Alligator and Other Stories

Shortlisted for the 2021 Swansea University Dylan Thomas PrizeShortlisted for a 2021 James Tait Black AwardShortlisted for the PEN/Robert W Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection 2021'Sardonic, monstrous, tender' Sunday Times'Startling . . . profound' Daily MailIn Alligator and Other Stories, Dima Alzayat captures luminously how it feels to be ‘other’: as a Syrian, as an Arab, as an immigrant, as a woman. Each one of the nine stories collected here is a snapshot of those moments when unusual circumstances suddenly distinguish us from our neighbours, when our difference is thrown into relief.Here are ‘dangerous’ women transgressing, missing children in 1970s New York, a family who were once Syrian but have now lost their name, and a young woman about to discover the hollowness of the American dream. At its centre lies ‘Alligator’: a remarkable compilation of real and invented sources, which rescues from history the story of a Syrian American couple who were murdered at the hands of the state.Alzayat explores experiences that are startling and real, delivering an emotional punch that lingers long after reading.

How does it feel to be an alien at home? . . . Sardonic, monstrous, tender, these well-crafted tales show us circumstances that might be our own, and let us see them through the eyes of others., Dima Alzayat’s startling, often shocking stories have at their heart a profound sense of dislocation . . . Brilliant., Alligator contains several stories of breathtaking power . . . Start reading now and you can say you were an early fan, because Dima Alzayat combines superb writing with razor-sharp imagination and focuses on social injustice, racial violence, and global immigration., Reflective, nostalgic, griefstricken, harrowing. Alzayat's work circles power and politics, but at its centre are people: their relationships, their pasts, their homes., Gloriously hypnotic. These charged, visceral stories get under the skin and stay there. This collection heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice.

Dima Alzayat was born in Damascus, Syria, grew up in San Jose, California, and now lives in Manchester. She was the winner of the 2019 ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Award, a 2018 Northern Writers’ Award, the 2017 Bristol Short Story Prize and the 2015 Bernice Slote Award. She was runner-up in the 2018 Deborah Rogers Award and the 2018 Zoetrope: All-Story Competition, and was Highly Commended in the 2013 Bridport Prize.

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