Ranging widely in subject matter—from a musician's destructive narcissism to the strange effects a persistent Norwegian has on a bachelor's love life—the stories in this collection also vary in style. Both elegantly insightful and highly adventurous, these tales are inventive, deeply comic, sometimes very unsettling, and completely engaging. Lanzmann and Other Stories marks the debut of a startlingly gifted writer.

Awards

Shortlisted for the ReLit Award, 2007.

Praise

“In his debut story collection, Damian Tarnopolsky often writes like a dazzling fallen angel.... I listened to Tarnopolsky plucking at my shopworn critical synapses, and asked why he made them sing in a way several prize contenders haven't. The answer is that he's a truly new voice, delivered with a rare panache.”
–The Globe and Mail

“[Tarnopolsky's stories] not only display an ironic sensibility, but also demonstrate a prose style that owes much to the influence of Kafka.... At turns surreal, serio-comic whimsical and erotic, Tarnopolsky's stories hurtle headlong into the heart of our myths... and reveal that the truth waiting for us is not what we'd expect.”
–Toronto Star

“When writers try to capture a Toronto brand of corruption, of sleazy suits and ponytailed men, usually only a CTV-level of pseudo grit is achieved. What in other hands is embarrassing (and embarrassed) is assured and malicious in Lanzmann and Other Stories, the fiction debut by Damian Tarnopolsky. Tarnopolsky’s protagonists are slowly revealed though eloquent writing and, by story’s end, the recipients of inventive comeuppances.... Tarnopolsky may capture very real worlds and emotions but he allows just enough conjecture to make original turns... There’s authority, Nabokovian play and bawdiness to these tales.... And if this desperately earnest town needs one thing, it’s satire that takes itself seriously.”
–eye weekly

“Tarnopolsky loves his characters for his flaws, not despite them, and the reader too is compelled. The prose is delicate, thoughtful and funny.... Tarnopolsky’s characters are finely fleshed out, the dialogue is fluid and believable, and the structures are clever and interesting…. It is proof of Tarnopolsky’s skill, insight, and wit.”
–Quill and Quire

 “Lanzmann and Other Stories is smart and funny and crass and intelligent. There is sour humour in these stories and bitter discovery. Tarnopolsky is full of form and new feeling. Highly recommended.”
–Michael Winter, author of The Architects are Here

“The modulation of structure and voice are amazing. I think if your only language were Pashto or Tagalog, you could still listen to the telling of these stories and find pleasure and drama, and a fast sense of character too.”
–Seán Virgo, author of The Eye in the Thicket

“Full of sex and music, cynicism and beauty, absurdity and perfect order, cities and conversation and perversity, Tarnopolsky’s elegant stories are darkly brilliant reflections of our darkly glittering age.”
–Stephen Marche, author of Shining at the Bottom of the Sea