'Cities & Countries' is a book about travel, about searching and wandering, about finding greatness in the midst of the world.
Book Description: Cities & Countries is at once a worldly love affair and a private reflection . . . it is a brave novel, epic in scope, destined to become a classic of 21st century literature. - Reactor Magazine Strange adventures meet Alexis when he wanders far from his familiar home in a quest to become a man of the world. What begins as a search for the "Great City, leads to a wayward and whimsical, romantically poignant, and at times powerfully despairing, jaunt through various cities and countries, far and wide. Along the way, he meets soldiers and hunchbacks, criminals and revolutionaries, madmen and fishermen, goatherds and opium smokers, charlatans, fanatical holy men and beautiful noblemen's daughters. He encounters glory, suffers poverty and loss. Friends and lovers come and go, while youth gives way to wisdom and experience. Payne speaks to us in his unique timeless tone, mixing mythology, realism and allegory to create a stage for an extraordinary drama that blends comedy, tragedy, gritty prose and magical poetry in an exploration of joy and sorrow, hope and despair.
Determined to confront the hazy memories of his troubled youth, Oliver Matthews, a retired detective and confirmed bachelor, returns to the picturesque town of Henley-on-Thames for the first time in years.
Soldier's Gap is a non-traditional mystery with literary elements. The high school principal is brutally murdered, but Deputy Sheriff Dave Jenkins's search for meaning and love is a much more significant theme.
"Murder isn't usually this fun
The bulk of the collection is eight short stories that are set in yesteryear. The compilation is filled out with four entertaining fantasy pieces and three poems.
