By Adrian Tomine. Published by Faber & Faber. Softcover, 96 pages, B&W, 2019. Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. Between his second and third tours of duty, a soldier returns home. To his former home, that is, using an old key while the new tenant is at work. Is he re-entering his old life or borrowing someone else’s? Where is the line he will not cross? Each day is the same: he exists in a state of suspension, barely knowing how he passes the time – until someone else intrudes on the intruder. Adrian Tomine, graphic master of alienation and regret, expertly expands the form to express the unsaid and the unbearable in this unforgettable evocation of a post-traumatic life. Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work. Born in Sacramento in 1974, Adrian Tomine is the author of the acclaimed series Optic Nerve, that has been running since 1991. His work has also appeared in the New Yorker and Esquire, among other publications. His books include Shortcomings, which was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2008 IPPYS and was a 2007 New York Times Notable Book, Summer Blonde, Sleepwalk, and, most recently, Scenes From an Impending Marriage, all of which are published by Faber in the UK. “Adrian Tomine can draw, think, write and feel. He sees everything, he knows everything; he's in your apartment, he's on the subway, he's in your dreams. He knows about ageing baseball fans and delusional horticulturists, he knows useless fathers and awkward nerd-girl stand-ups, he knows the single and the married, the mad and the sane, he knows zines and hardback 'graphic novels,' knows when to use a speech a bubble and when silence is enough. He has more ideas in twenty panels than novelists have in a lifetime.”- ZADIE SMITH “Tomine's storytelling avoids sentimentality like the plague, and yet he somehow evokes deep empathy and emotions through his sparseness and brevity.”- DOUG JOHNSTONE
