The Old World and Other Stories

January 15, 2018
Fagan (A Bird’s Eye) uses 35 black-and-white photographs from the early 1900s through the 1950s to inspire a series of enchanting short stories of astonishing breadth. “Many years ago the photographs in this book became separated from their original owners, faces unrecognized, settings a mystery... I have given them stories to replace the ones they lost,” Fagan explains. Those stories are not simple nostalgia. Fagan leaves plenty of room for mystery and surprises. The title story focuses on a photograph of two young African-American children in an elegant home. When the story opens the children are not allowed to go outside due to “a disturbance” no one will explain to them. Kathy tells a story to her bored brother, Raymond, about living in a grand house in the country with horses and a carriage. Readers are left to speculate about whether the story is a true memory or a fanciful escape from reality. “Rosie” at first seems to be merely a story of a lost love, but a twist takes it many levels deeper. In “The Traveller,” a piano teacher copes with a toxic marriage by practicing out-of-body “travel.” Readers will be transported and wish for more.

November 1, 2017
Popular children's author Fagan quickly engages adult readers in this collection of 35 very short short stories inspired by found black-and-white photographs. Every face tells a story, says one of Fagan's nameless characters, perhaps speaking for the author. Fagan uses the images as prompts for thematic explorations and narrative experimentation. A picture of a young boy in a sheriff's outfit becomes the trigger for an old-fashioned western tale. A portrait of a multiracial woman becomes the starting point for a brief commentary on racial and sexual identity. Fagan's styles glide from realism to surrealism, and his forms range from monologues to interviews. This photo album-like book takes readers on an intriguing, if uneven, journey creating points of connection with the past. Not that Fagan's stories wallow in nostalgia for a world gone by; instead, they offer a complex layering of then and now. Quick and enjoyable, this will leave readers mulling over valuable insights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)