We Were Strangers launch at Waterstones

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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We Were Strangers launch

14 September 2018

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Writer Nicholas Royle. Photo by Danny Moran.
Writer Nicholas Royle. Photo by Danny Moran.
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Serendipitously coinciding with an “in conversation” fundraiser for Salford Lads’ Club a week later featuring bassists Peter Hook of Joy Division (then New Order) and Stone Roses (then Primal Scream)’s Mani, Manchester-based independent publisher Confingo launches We Were Strangers, a book of short stories inspired by that first band’s seminal debut album, Unknown Pleasures.

Each of the 10 original short stories in the new anthology takes a track from Joy Division’s 1979 Factory album as its title, each specially commissioned from acclaimed writers (and music fans) by editor Richard V Hirst, joint winner of the 2011 Manchester Fiction Prize. Richard says: “Ian Curtis’s legacy lies principally in his distinctive lyrics, suggestive as they are of some kind of story, a chronicle of isolation, anguish, biblical conflict and ecstasy, but one whose plot, characters and structure are all lost in the dark and the fog. The stories constitute a contemporary literary snapshot of the impact Unknown Pleasures has had: what we heard, what it has done for our imaginations, and where it has led us.”

Just like the songs which make up Unknown Pleasures, the stories in We Were Strangers – with their eclectic mix of narrative styles, forms and voices – range from the bleak and sinister to the moving and thrilling, and the whole delivers a thoughtful, absorbing and intense response almost 40 years on.

Split into two, with a “graphic interlude”, Transmission, by the publishing house and its literary magazine’s art director Zoe McLean, the first half sees Nicholas Royle take on Disorder, Betty Trask Award winner Jenn Ashworth tackle Day Of The Lords, Edge Hill Short Story Prize winner Jessie Greengrass in charge of Candidate, David Gaffney Insight and Sophie Mackintosh New Dawn Fades. In the second half, Zoe Lambert has She’s Lost Control, Toby Litt handles Shadowplay, Ali Smith favourite Eley Williams picks up Wilderness, Louise Marr gets Interzone, and Anne Billson rounds off the nicely packaged tome with I Remember Nothing.

Reading at the Manchester launch event are flash fiction pioneer and author David Gaffney, whose first graphic novel The Three Rooms In Valerie’s Head, came out earlier this year on US publisher Top Shelf; Zoe Lambert, who has an acclaimed collection, The War Tour, out with Comma Press; Sophie Mackintosh, winner of the 2016 White Review Short Story Prize and currently on the Man Booker longlist for her debut novel, The Water Cure, and novelist and short story writer Nicholas Royle, whose third short story collection, The Dummy and Other Uncanny Stories, just came out and whose second collection, Ornithology, was the first book to be published by Confingo and was recently longlisted for the 2018 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. A perfect evening for fiction and music lovers alike, we reckon.

Where to go near We Were Strangers launch at Waterstones

Manchester
Restaurant
KAI Deansgate

Kai is a Turkish restaurant on Deansgate, set up by the brains behind the well-regarded Zouk restaurant. Expect excellent mezze plates and an open grill that releases wonderful aromas throughout the venue.

City Centre
Restaurant
Côte Restaurant

Elegantly laid out with simple wooden tables and Burgundy-coloured banquettes, Côte in Manchester does brasserie food, and does it well.

CUPRA City Garage DJ Decks
City Centre
Café or Coffee Shop
CUPRA City Garage

Already based in Paris, Mexico City, Sydney and Vienna, CUPRA’s international expansion is driven by culture as much as cars, and Manchester’s creative energy has clearly caught their attention.

City Centre
Restaurant
Lunya Manchester

Lunya is a Spanish and Catalan deli and restaurant in Manchester’s stunning Barton Arcade. The food is reliably fresh and the staff both charming and incredibly knowledgable.

Royal Exchange Theatre
City Centre
Theatre
Royal Exchange Theatre

The Royal Exchange is one of the most celebrated theatres in the country, highly regarded for both new writing and its take on the classics.

Bloom Cafe
Manchester
Bloom Cafe

Bloom Cafe is a stunning cafe based on Deansgate in Manchester, serving up an array of hot and cold drinks, including a range of CBD options.

St Ann’s Square
City Centre
Park
St Ann’s Square

St Ann’s Square is a quiet little enclave of shops, with Barton’s Arcade set back from it on one side, and St Ann’s Church, which dates back to 1712 and…

City Centre
Music venue
South

Bite-size basement dive alternating techno-house and indie nights, this stalwart of the Manchester music scene can be found just off Deansgate, next door to St Ann’s Square.

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Deryn Rees-Jones. Credit Alison Dodd Photography
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