About this item
"Jeffrey Ford is one of the few writers who uses wonder instead of ink in his pen." - Jonathan CarrollA bold and intriguing fabulist novel that reimagines two of the most legendary characters in American literature - Captain Ahab and Ishmael of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick - from the critically acclaimed Edgar and World Fantasy award-winning author of The Girl in the Glass and The Shadow Year.At the end of a long journey, Captain Ahab returns to the mainland to confront the true author of the novel Moby-Dick, his former shipmate, Ishmael. For Ahab was not pulled into the oceans depths by a harpoon line, and the greatly exaggerated rumors of his untimely death have caused him grievous harm - after hearing about Ahabs demise, his wife and child left Nantucket for New York, and now Ahab is on a desperate quest to find them.Ahabs pursuit leads him to The Gorgons Mirror, the sensationalist tabloid newspaper that employed Ishmael as a copy editor while he wrote the harrowing story of the ill-fated Pequod. In the penny presss office, Ahab meets George Harrow, who makes a deal with the captain: the newspaperman will help Ahab navigate the city in exchange for the exclusive story of his salvation from the mouth of the great white whale. But their investigation - like Ahabs own story - will take unexpected, dangerous, and ultimately tragic turns.Told with wisdom, suspense, a modicum of dry humor and horror, and a vigorous stretching of the truth, Ahabs Return charts an inventive and intriguing voyage involving one of the most memorable characters in classic literature, and pays homage to one of the greatest novels ever written.
About the Author
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels, Vanitas, The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year, The Twilight Pariah, Ahab's Return, Or The Last Voyage, and Out of Body, coming from Tor.com in May, 2020. His story collections are The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, Crackpot Palace, A Natural History of Hell, and The Best of Jeffrey Ford from PS, Dec. 2019. Ford has published well over 100 short stories, which have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy Award, Nebula, Shirley Jackson Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award, Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (France) , Hayakawa Award (Japan) . His fiction has been translated into about 20 languages. In addition to writing, he's been a professor of literature and writing for 30 years and has been a guest lecturer at Clarion Writing Workshop, The Stone Coast MFA Program, The Richard Hugo House in Seattle, and the Antioch University Writing Workshop. He lives in Ohio and currently teaches part time at Ohio Wesleyan University.Link to Ford's homepage -- http://www.well-builtcity.com/
