A River in Egypt

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

In his masterful story 'A River in Egypt', David Means paints a portrait of a moment. Cavanaugh and his young son are suspended; trapped in what a nurse calls 'the sweat chamber', where the boy will be tested for cystic fibrosis.

Cavanaugh has brought distractions — spasmodic action figures, malformed toy trucks — but they do little to alter the frustration of the sick child screaming, or to alleviate the anxiety of the time spent waiting for 'some exactitude in the form of a diagnosis'.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

• Author
• David Means

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 34

• Publisher
• Faber & Faber

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9780571352494

• Release date
• 2019