Fiction. In his debut collection, Jensen Beach's characters discover what it means to be individuals, colleagues, husbands and fathers in a world that too often complicates even the best intentions with sabotage and subterfuge. What's most striking about these stories is the protagonists' ability to continually make right, difficult decisions despite being placed in challenging, dangerous situations. Readers will delight in Beach's powerful, deft prose, and the surprising warmth that radiates from his people. Each story is a robust chronicle that churns and evolves and offers glimpses into fully-realized lives. To say this marks the arrival of a gifted author is true but somehow misses the mark, as the maturity and sincerity that pulses throughout this collection signals a writer whose many talents have been developed and honed over time.

For Out of the Heart Proceed

Beach, Jensen

Literature & Fiction

Dark Sky Books

The intricate, interlocking stories of Jensen Beach's extraordinarily poised story collection are set in a Swedish village on the Baltic Sea as well as in Stockholm over the course of two eventful years.
In Swallowed by the Cold, people are besieged and haunted by disasters both personal and national: a fatal cycling accident, a drowned mother, a fire on a ferry, a mysterious arson, the assassination of the Swedish foreign minister, and, decades earlier, the Soviet bombing of Stockholm. In these stories, a drunken, lonely woman is convinced that her new neighbor is the daughter of her dead lover; a one-armed tennis player and a motherless girl reckon with death amid a rainstorm; and happening upon a car crash, a young woman is unaccountably drawn to the victim, even as he slides into a coma and her marriage falls into jeopardy. 
Again and again, Beach's protagonists find themselves unable to express their innermost feelings to those they are closest to, but at the same time they are drawn to confide in strangers. In its confidence and subtle precision, Beach’s prose evokes their reticence but is supple enough to reveal deeper passions and intense longing. Shot through with loss and the regret of missed opportunities, Swallowed by the Cold is a searching and crystalline book by a startlingly talented young writer.

Swallowed by the Cold: Stories

United States

Graywolf Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Beach, Jensen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Beach, Jensen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Beach, Jensen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

For Out of the Heart Proceed

Swallowed by the Cold: Stories