David Frankel is a writer and artist. He was born in Salford and spent his youth lurking around the westerly fringes of Manchester. For a long time he worked as an artist, but writing was always there in the background, and eventually took over. Since then his stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, and have won prizes or been shortlisted in numerous competitions. His first collection, 'Forgetting Is How We Survive', was shortlisted for the 2024 Edge Hill Prize.

'An unforgettable collection. Frankel is a fearless explorer of the perilous edges of life, where loss, shame and desire haunt and beguile. As readers, we trespass in derelict landscapes, abandoned homes and secret lives. We navigate by glimpse and echo, travelling David Frankel is a writer and artist. He was born in Salford and spent his youth lurking around the westerly fringes of Manchester. For a long time he worked as an artist, but writing was always there in the background, and eventually took over. Since then his stories have been published in anthologies and magazines, and have won prizes or been shortlisted in numerous competitions. His first collection, 'Forgetting Is How We Survive', was shortlisted for the 2024 Edge Hill Prize.

'An unforgettable collection. Frankel is a fearless explorer of the perilous edges of life, where loss, shame and desire haunt and beguile. As readers, we trespass in derelict landscapes, abandoned homes and secret lives. We navigate by glimpse and echo, travelling switchbacks of time and teetering at brinks as big as sinkholes. Here, possibilities glimmer, mystery is sometimes breached, and, just occasionally, beauty flashes like a survival flare.'
Alison MacLeod, TENDERNESS

‘In David Frankel's remarkable stories the everyday is at once strange and threatening, the setting for both beautiful and terrible events. Frankel maps the edgelands, the fringes, the marginalised. His theme is the ways in which we are haunted and shaped by memories and experiences that are inherently unreliable. This is a brilliantly unsettling debut.’
Ben Tufnell, THE NORTH SHORE

'David Frankel’s sharp, alluring fragments read like reports from a disturbing world that, with gradual alarm, we realize is the same one we’re standing in. In these eerie commentaries, we feel flashes of Borges’ Labyrinths and Ballard’s Atrocity Exhibition, though neither can fully prepare us for what we are about to experience. Dark-ravaged, ecclesiastical, rain-lashed, these are stories from a reality that before we glimpsed only in the corner of our eye, but now grows bigger, closer, presses in on us, urgently, with fervour.' Ashley Stokes, author of Gigantic

'In short pieces full of vivid images, David Frankel goes out into the derelict edgelands of our messed-up society and encounters a strange, forlorn beauty in those places that defy the advertisers and financiers. ‘The tranquillity of negation,’ he calls what he finds there, in that zone of dread and grace, where the overlooked inhabitants find consolation in oblivion. A brief, marvellous, haunting book, reminiscent of Sebald and Sinclair.' David Swann, author of Season of Bright Sorrow ...more

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David Frankel’s books

Average rating: 3.94 · 67 ratings · 22 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	Best British Short Stories 2022 by Nicholas Royle (Editor), Mona Dash, Sara Sherwood 3.42 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2022 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Broken Ground (Uncertain Stories, #1) by David Frankel (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Eva Carson (Contributor), Tamsin Hopkins (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.25 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2025	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forgetting Is How We Survive 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Return really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Unthology 8 by Ashley Stokes (Goodreads Author) (editor), Robin Jones (Editor), Clare Fisher (Goodreads Author) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2016 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hours of Our Lady 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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David Frankel rated a book it was ok The Quiet Woman by Christopher Priest	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 23, 2026 04:17AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Quiet Woman by Christopher Priest. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Quiet Woman by Christopher Priest <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Frankel rated a book it was amazing Brilliant Blue by Karen Stevens	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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David Frankel rated a book it was amazing Paradise by Ben Tufnell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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David Frankel rated a book it was ok The Silence by Don DeLillo	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 27, 2025 03:38AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Silence by Don DeLillo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Silence by Don DeLillo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Frankel made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — This book has been misattributed topic " Hi, I am a contributor to this book and it has been wrongly attributed to an author with the same name. Would it be possible to re-attribute it? Thank ...more "
Nov 16, 2025 03:42AM
David Frankel rated a book it was amazing The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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David Frankel rated a book it was amazing Gunflower by Laura Jean McKay (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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David Frankel rated a book really liked it Devil's Day by Andrew Michael Hurley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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David Frankel rated a book it was amazing The Separation by Christopher Priest	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 12, 2025 03:31AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Separation by Christopher Priest. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Separation by Christopher Priest <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">