Byzantium

Starred review from May 13, 2013
In the title story in this remarkable debut collection, the crippled son of a prominent general living in the eponymous ancient Greek city is called upon by the emperor for a harrowing and bloody task. “The Moor” features an academic who attempts to unravel the final years of a 19-century detective’s life. In “The Traitor of Zion,” an impressionable American cult member, also living in the 19th century, discovers the dark side of his leader and himself. And the death-obsessed middle-schooler of “Eraser” imagines ways to escape his step-father’s fishing trip while gaining the attention of his mother. Stroud writes convincingly in any time or mode, juggling heavily plotted stories of historical fiction that are cinematic in their sense of adventure and more traditional literary stories admirable for their restraint and close examination of intrapersonal conflicts. It can feel as if Stroud is trying to outdo himself, attempting to discover a narrative or time period he can’t conquer, as he places his characters into radically disparate worlds and genres; fortunately, every story is its own success, leaving the impression that Stroud can, indeed, do anything. This is an exciting and essential collection, unlike anything in recent memory, and a decidedly impressive debut.

July 1, 2013
The 10 stories in Stroud's Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prizewinning debut vary greatly in time and place, but the world-weary yet passionate protagonists, all beset by mystery and misery, unify the collection. In lieu of his crumbling marriage, an American teacher flees to Germany, where he falls into an unwanted affair with an old flame. To avoid working for his father, a young idealist seeks out a religious commune in northern Michigan. A scrawny high-schooler helps rebuild a Texas town in the wake of a tornado and struggles to impress his dream girl at the local Christian hangout. A Byzantine nobleman, plagued since birth by a crippled hand, seeks to avenge his father by ending a holy man's threat to the empire. After losing his lover to a pandemic, a nineteenth-century inventor creates a crude machine to cryogenically preserve anyone afraid of meeting the same end. Stroud's command over both contemporary and historical narratives is reminiscent of Jim Shepard's, though his sure and robust voice proves him to be a deeply compelling and original new storyteller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)