Eight - Fantastical Tales From Here, There & Everywhere

Poornima Manco

Sep 2021 · Around the World Collection Book 2 · Mango Tree Publications

About this ebook

What if… anything was possible?

What really lurks beneath the humdrum and the mundane, the ubiquitous and the familiar? And what if you came face to face with it?

Enter a world where goddesses descend to earth, mythical creatures materialise out of thin air, ghosts mean well, and limbs have minds of their own. In a series of tales that explore the fantastical and the surreal, lives of ordinary people are upturned by bizarre incidents and mysterious happenings.

Gloriously imagined, deliciously crafted and wickedly entertaining, Eight takes you on a fabulous romp around multiple countries and cultures of the world, with just a wee bit of something extra in the mix.

Sit back, relax and get ready to savour a slice of some delectably fantastical cake!

Netgalley reviews:

"Delightful light confection that goes around the globe with short fantasy stories. From Argentina to somewhere in the air Hitting Germany, France, Egypt, Korea, China, India in-between. Little quick tastes of a dot of sweet, sour, spicy, hot & cold tidbits to make you smile or think. Most poignant I thought was the German & the rabbit but they were all tasty fare."

"One of the reasons I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez is because of the magic realism.These 8 short stories take place in different countries and while dealing with very serious subjects(disability,addiction,loss, loneliness...)each of them has a touch of magic realism that make it very easy to get immersed in them."

"This was such a magical book I thoroughly enjoyed every second of reading it. It was well written with such brilliant imagery. A great read."

"I’ll be honest straight away and say I have a hate/hate relationship with short stories and all my previous reviews will attest to that. No matter how many I read, I just don’t enjoy them. They’re not for me and never seem to grab me or keep me interested. But I think I’ve finally found the one collection that has shown me what a good short story can be. They’re whimsical and magical and almost fairytale like but steeped in realism with an important life lesson at the end, but by approaching it in this way, they don’t become corny or preachy or over the top."

Ratings and reviews

Eight Fantastical Tales from Here, There and Everywhere is a collection of short stories by Indian author, Poornima Manco. The tales are set in Argentine, Germany, France, Egypt, Korea, Hong Kong, India and USA. The Butterfly Effect: Mariposa’s mother Lucia, a tango dancer like Mari’s abuela, Elena, danced out of her life when she was four, causing her to swear off dancing. Raised by her loving abuelo in a little B&B in Puerto Iguazu, Mari lost her leg in a motorbike accident at eighteen. Her prosthetic leg, when it is fitted, seems to have a will of its own about dance. 4/5 Osterhase: the Easter that Stefan turns nine, he encounters a larger-than-life Osterhase – Easter Bunny – in his grandparents’ yard. It has plenty of advice, not just about finding a basket of chocolate eggs, but about life, and it won’t be the last time the Osterhase dispenses wisdom. 4/5 The Invisible Suitcase: when Ottilie and her cat Minou set up their Café L’amour in a dusty Paris street, they have one purpose in mind. Minou selects the recipient of their endeavours on the first day, but a month on, while customers clamour for their pistachio financiers, Elodie Aubert, illustrator of G G Boucher’s delightful children’s books, has not yet found love. 5/5 New Year, New You: a young man travels to Egypt to interview the ghost of the Pharaoh’s slave. But is his motive really just curiosity? 5/5 Idol: K-pop trainee Heejin aspires to K-pop stardom, but on a rooftop one sleepless night she encounters the ghost of her idol, Byeol, once lead singer of Starcrossed. What she learns doesn’t temper her ambition, but gives her a different sense of purpose. 4/5 The Perfect Wife: thrice-divorced fifty-year-old billionaire Alex Wang sets his trusted employee, Joseph Cai to work on building him a tailor-made wife, a HumTech wife who will have all the best qualities of his exes, but none of the flaws. For whom, though, is this perfect wife made-to-order? 4/5 Lala Lakshmi: the late Papat Chand Mithaiwala’s halwai shop is run with an iron hand by his grandson, Lakshmi. A dispute over packaging in the run-up to Diwali shows what a ruthless businessman he is, forcing his manager to stay late despite the man’s worry over his sick daughter. But that night he is visited by ghosts: first his grandfather, then the god always the object of his prayers. An Indian version of the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. 4/5 A Thank You Would Be Nice: her diatribe about her invisibility marks Elaine as an angry and embittered woman. This sixty-year-old flight attendant is fed up with unappreciative customers. Elaine is also a serial killer whose victims sicken and die post-flight: best not to be persistently rude, intolerant or obnoxious on her flights. 5/5 These eight tales, often clever and insightful, are enjoyable and entertaining. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Books Go Social.

I could read Poornima's work all day long. She writes with such detail. The narrative and characters are both so cleverly entwined. Each of these short stories is so enthralling, you will truly loose yourself, within the pages. Brilliantly crafted, strong reading. Very Highly Recommend. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

About the author

With a voracious appetite for reading and an unbridled imagination, Poornima started writing stories at age eight. Newspaper in Education, The Times of India supplement, published several of her winning entries. Over the years, family and career took over and writing took a back seat.

In 2009, when a short story of hers placed in an online competition run by The Guardian newspaper, she once again found her writing voice. Subsequently, she started an online blog where she continued to write articles and stories. Nine years later these stories appeared in two separate books as a part of the India trilogy. Since then, she has published the third book in the trilogy, a novella, another book of short stories and her first novel.