Julyan

David

A History of Saints

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A History of Saints

Semi-Finalist, The 22nd Thurber Prize in Writing

A playful satire of the Great Recession, set in America's quirkiest town.During the recession, to keep from losing his home-the stately "Carolina Court," in Asheville, North Carolina-Frank Reed becomes a reluctant landlord to a houseful of misfits. A New Age outpost in the South, Asheville has plenty of eccentrics, and Frank's elderly tenant, Angus Saxe-Pardee, is the strangest of all. Taking charge of the household, Angus rents the last remaining rooms to two women: Andromeda Megan Bell's arrival prompts chivalry and brings a stalking ex-lover to Frank's home; and in Lida Barfield, the elegant enigma, Angus at last meets his match. In the feuding and chaos that follow, feral chihuahuas are captured, poetry is butchered, and love and gardening finally triumph. For anyone grieving what we lose to gentrification, A History of Saints is a comedy of errors to revive memories of when our lives felt harder-yet were somehow richer.

Julyan Davis

Semi-Finalist, The 22nd Thurber Prize in Writing

A playful satire of the Great Recession, set in America's quirkiest town.During the recession, to keep from losing his home-the stately "Carolina Court," in Asheville, North Carolina-Frank Reed becomes a reluctant landlord to a houseful of misfits. A New Age outpost in the South, Asheville has plenty of eccentrics, and Frank's elderly tenant, Angus Saxe-Pardee, is the strangest of all. Taking charge of the household, Angus rents the last remaining rooms to two women: Andromeda Megan Bell's arrival prompts chivalry and brings a stalking ex-lover to Frank's home; and in Lida Barfield, the elegant enigma, Angus at last meets his match. In the feuding and chaos that follow, feral chihuahuas are captured, poetry is butchered, and love and gardening finally triumph. For anyone grieving what we lose to gentrification, A History of Saints is a comedy of errors to revive memories of when our lives felt harder-yet were somehow richer.

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About the author

Julyan Davis is an English-born artist who has painted the American South for thirty years. He received his art training at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. In 1988, having completed his B.A. in painting and printmaking, he traveled to the South on a painting trip that was also fueled by an interest in the history of Demopolis, Alabama and its settling by Bonapartist exiles.

Davis now lives in Asheville, North Carolina. His work is exhibited internationally, and is in many public and private collections. Recent acquisitions include the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, the Greenville County Museum of Art (South Carolina), the Morris Museum (Augusta, GA), the Duke Endowment and the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion.

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