The Cattle Express is a contemporary Latvian author’s effort to pinpoint both his personal identity and a universal human one; he seeks to combine both into a coherent whole. Two plotlines run parallel in this text: the first takes place in Latvia in the first half of the 20th century; the second, in 21st-century New York City. Crosshill’s story of occupation, deportations, war, and the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis – the first Latvian Prime Minister – runs side by side along a tale of the modern world of Wall Street – which comes with a promising life full of possibility.

Contact: Tom Crosshill, tom@tomcrosshill.com

The collection Seeing Double and Other Stories was published in Latvian in 2011. It contains 13 of Crosshill’s stories, including 2011 Nebula nominee “Mama, We Are Zhenya, Your Son” and 2009 Writers of the Future winner “Seeing Double.” From quantum mechanics to flying pigs, from hive minds to passenger dragons, from time travel back to the USSR to a future where Russia rules the Baltics, Crosshill’s tales span numerous settings and genres.

“Seeing Double and Other Stories isn’t the first sci-fi short story collection
in Latvian literature. It’s special, though, because it simultaneously is and is not traditional science fiction. The author touches on a number of themes that have often come up in both literature and movies during the science fiction boom of
the last fifty years—mostly outside Latvia. These themes include future-era people under the control of technological achievements, A.I. trying to be just like humans, the paradoxes of time travel, and a creator’s responsibility for his creations. In his stories, [Crosshill] skillfully uses a technique I like to call the crooked mirror, or multi- faceted prism approach. By changing the angle from which we look at an object or event, he gives a grotesque slant to our point of view. This slant reveals the object to us from a very human, intimate perspective.” – Bārbala Simsone, literary critic.

Contact: Tom Crosshill, tom@tomcrosshill.com