The Camera and the Cobra and Other Stories

by Roger Nash

Roger Nash gained international acclaim for his title story "The Camera and the Cobra," which won the PEN/O.Henry Prize Story Award, and was anthologized by Anchor Books (PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories 2009) as one of the twenty best short stories published in North America. Nashs short stories explore a theme less familiar in literature but common in how the course of our own day-to-day lives can be deeply ambiguous, a sheer mystery to us. He explores the tragedy and humour of this, over a rich variety of lives and situations, sometimes realistically leaving the mystery and loose-ends of life teasingly unresolved for both his characters and readers. He shows how the phrase "mystery writing" can be richly and revealingly extended beyond its more usual application to crimes and their solution, to the weave of everyday life.

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2011

Reviews

[Scott Overton]

As a writer of poetry more often than prose, Roger Nash has an amazing gift with language. His imagery delights, and his tales range from sublime observations of the mundane to romps of fantasy that force you to rejig the way you look at the world. The title story was a PEN/O'Henry selection as one of the best short stories of the year, but there are others here just as good.
I deliberately took my time reading The Camera and the Cobra, a story or two at a time with other books read in between. It's far too rich otherwise. A dollop of whipped cream at well-spaced intervals is much more pleasurable than a whole bowl at one sitting.