Peter Cameron

Nursing an elderly cancer patient in an isolated English countryside mansion in 1950, Coral interacts with a disgruntled housekeeper and her charge's sexually torn and war-ravaged son until a series of random events culminates in a complicated marriage.

For mysterious reasons, a man forsakes his American life and arrives in a strange country called Andorra. He settles into the grand- and only- hotel in its seaside capital, and gradually makes the acquaintance of this tiny city's most prominent residents: the ancient Mrs. Reinhardt, who has a lifetime lease on the penthouse in the hotel; Sophonsobia Quay, the kayaking matriarch of an Andorran dynasty; and the Ricky Dents, an Australian couple who...

A wryly humorous, impeccably observed novel about the capriciousness of love Omar Razaghi posts a letter on September 13, 1995 that will change the course of his life forever. A doctoral student at the University of Kansas, he writes to the estate of the Latin American author Jules Gund, requesting permission to write Gund's authorized biography. His request is refused, but Omar has already accepted a fellowship from the university, and with his...

Here characters act on lies they spin to protect themselves,  or to protect others. In "What Do People Do All Day?", a child gamely stalls a father's confession of adultery. The heroine of "Fast Forward" tells her dying mother that she's engaged-a lie designed to give the old woman a final few days of happiness. And in "Memorial Day," a teenage boy struggles to adjust to his mother's new husband, a stepfather only thirteen years his senior.

Cameron's collection of witty and insightful stories reveals individuals seeking  love,  stability, and acceptance The characters in Far-Flung, Peter Cameron's second story collection, face a familiar dilemma: They aspire to happiness but are trapped in difficult lives not of their choosing. In "Just Relax," a young woman jaded by attempts to travel (and save) the world returns home to become a Pilgrim reenactor in a theme park. In "Not the Point,"...

This is the story of James Sveck, a sophisticated, vulnerable young man with a deep appreciation for the world and no idea how to live in it. James is eighteen, the child of divorced parents living in Manhattan. Articulate, sensitive, and cynical, he rejects all of the assumptions that govern the adult world around him, including the expectation that he will go to college in the fall. He would prefer to move to an old house in a small town somewhere...

"Precocious yet vulnerable teenager James ... has a deep appreciation for the world, but no idea how to live in it. Finding no help from his divorced parents ..., nor his twenty-year-old memoir-writing sister ..., James decides to reject the assumptions that govern the adult world, starting with his potential college career. Grappling with his future, his sexuality, and his screwed up family, James embarks on a search for wisdom through nontraditional...