A Carol Dickens Christmas: A Novel

by Thomas Fox Averill

Overview

Joyfully riffing on a holiday classic, Tom Averill's A Carol Dickens Christmas is a moving and contemporary tale that, like the work of that other Dickens, focuses on what affects us deeply: judgment and compassion, grief and hope, cruelty and kindness. With a warm and realistic cast of characters, this is a story for people who believe in the magic of the season and—more to the point—in simply caring for each other.—Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826355010
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	08/15/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Thomas Fox Averill is the author of rode, Secrets of the Tsil Café: A Novel with Recipes, and A Carol Dickens Christmas: A Novel, all available from UNM Press. He lives in Topeka, Kansas.

Editorial Reviews

A tale of loss, redemption. and transformation.—Topeka Magazine

Cheery yuletide traditions are hampered by modern-day distractions in A Carol Dickens Christmas by Thomas Fox Averill, a charming story that pieces together morsels drawn from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol: Christmas songs, poems, recipes, and themes of family and change. . . . A Carol Dickens Christmas captures the essence of Christmas, revealing that changes can sometimes bring blessings.—Foreword Reviews

Cheery yuletide traditions are hampered by modern-day distractions in A Carol Dickens Christmas by Thomas Fox Averill, a charming story that pieces together morsels drawn from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol: Christmas songs, poems, recipes, and themes of family and change. . . . A Carol Dickens Christmas captures the essence of Christmas, revealing that changes can sometimes bring blessings.—Foreword Reviews

Averill's new book, A Carol Dickens Christmas: A Novel, takes the built-in structure of Christmas and spins a heart-warming story that echoes such classics as A Christmas Carol, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the biblical Christmas story.—Topeka Capital-Journal

Delightful.—The Manhattan Mercury

A Carol Dickens Christmas is a book that's more than the sum of its parts: It's a tale of seemingly ordinary people and their more or less ordinary lives that speaks to deeper truths of what it means to be human, what it means to change, what it means to love.—The Wichita Eagle

[A Carol Dickens Christmas] is a story of family and food, community and tradition, and it captures the wistful melancholy of the season as well as its hope and cheer.—Kansas History

This book is a gift, a stirring mix of Dickens; Hispanic American culture; food, drink, and generosity, brought together with a perfectly measured plot and spiced with Averill's savory prose. Recommended cold-weather reading, but will bring back the flavor of the holidays at any time of the year.—John Reimringer, author of Vestments

The Christmas spirit was in short supply this year, until I read Tom Averill's plum pudding of a book. It's a heady, rich, contemporary take on transitions, traditions and the true meaning of Christmas. (Recipes included!)—Linda Brand, director of the Kansas City Rep's A Christmas Carol for nine seasons

A memorable Christmas story on its own terms, A Carol Dickens Christmas also subtly reworks Charles Dickens's classic with a multicultural cast. Thomas Fox Averill contributes an important addition to 'Victorian afterlife' fiction and offers special treats to 'foodies' too.—Linda K. Hughes, Addie Levy Professor of Literature, Texas Christian University

From the Publisher