TALES FROM THE CAFÉ

TALES FROM THE CAFÉ is one of an entertaining series of short novels or mini-novels written by Warwick Collins. A young American anthropology student, Benjy Hall, likes to sit in a seedy bar and grill off campus and listen to the tales told by the various steelworkers and oil-men who are passing through. To his eye, there would seem to be two tribes in America — his own liberal, humanist culture, and a more conservative one — blue-collar, God-fearing, fundamentalist. He is fascinated by their stories of confrontation with hillbillies, mountain men and unusual tribes-people in the remote areas where they often work, but perhaps most of all by their old-fashioned sense of a permanent war between the sexes. He writes up his observations on their behaviour and their somewhat apocryphal stories as part of a project for his anthropology degree. His bemused tutor admires the quality of his work, and its undoubted authenticity, but is concerned that Benjy might “turn native”.Warwick Collins has an international literary reputation. THE RATIONALIST was described by Le Monde as 'a perfect novel'. His novel GENTS was reviewed in the Times list of all-time literary classics.Collins has completed 21 sparkling new fictions for Mini-novels, specifically for e-book publication. Each is about 50 pages long and capable of being read in under an hour. All 21 mini-novels are available through Amazon and Kindle. For a full list, click on "Warwick Collins (Author)" above. The publication of such a body of work, dedicated to the e-book form, is something of a literary event. Norman Thomas di Giovanni, the celebrated translator of Jorge Luis Borges, has written of the mini-novels "Hats off to Warwick Collins; he has single-handedly and beautifully revived for us the long story."