Burning Elvis

by John Burnside

Short stories from the award-winning poet and novelist.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2000

About the author

John Burnside was a Scottish writer. He was the author of nine collections of poetry and five works of fiction. Burnside achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000 for The Asylum Dance which was also shortlisted for the Forward and T.S. Eliot prizes. He left Scotland in 1965, returning to settle there in 1995. In the intervening period he worked as a factory hand, a labourer, a gardener and, for ten years, as a computer systems designer. Laterly, he lived in Fife with his wife and children and taught Creative Writing, Literature and Ecology courses at the University of St. Andrews.

[Author photo © Norman McBeath]

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The superb title story aside, this is a mixed bag. One killer, plenty of filler.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew the title story from various anthologies, but the other stories were new to me. Not a fan of the story about Lazarus (“Ether”) and a bit surprised how many stories seemed to be about murderers or serial killers, but the quality of Burnside’s writing makes this worth reading.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and disturbing! One of the best short story collections I've read in a long, long time.

[Konstantinos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly beautiful.