Help me find a short story published in Harpers.

December 22, 2006 7:04 PM

Help me find a short story published in Harpers in the last two years.

It appeared in Harpers between 6 and 24 months ago. I believe it was set in Scandinavia, perhaps Norway, and was written by a Scandinavian writer. It was very fantastic, but had a restrained tone, and was about the onset of an extremely cold winter, reminiscent of Fimbulwinter. Everything froze and by the end of the story people were wearing coats made from living dogs in an attempt to stay warm. It worked magnificently as a short story, but may have been part of a longer piece.

I searched Harper's website and Google to no avail. An email to Harpers is yet unanswered. Help me ask.metafilter, you're my only hope.

posted by nathancaswell to writing & language (8 comments total)

Hi, just wanted to let you know that your question isn't being ignored... I've been trying to find your request by using different search terms and combinations of words... I'm running into blank walls... Do you have any other information?
posted by amyms at 9:49 PM on December 22, 2006

It was very fantastic
I love how you put that. I will try to find the piece in question in my old issues.
posted by krautland at 11:45 PM on December 22, 2006

You'll find the contents of the last three years' issues linked here, if that helps.
posted by holgate at 4:40 AM on December 23, 2006

Have you tried your local public library? They probably have bound copies of Harper's.
posted by Carol Anne at 7:00 AM on December 23, 2006

Only one piece of fiction in the last three years in Harper's had 'dog' in the fulltext and was written by an author with a typically Scandinavian name, according to my search of ProQuest's archives. Any other clues?
posted by docgonzo at 12:38 PM on December 23, 2006

(Oh, and that one piece didn't seem to be it -- it was set in Chicago.)
posted by docgonzo at 1:40 PM on December 23, 2006

Thanks holgate, I'll look through those back issues and post it if I find it.

It was so right on in terms of what I'm interested in that whenever I recollect details from it there's a good chance that it's stuff I'm making up.

Also, it had some elements that were very similar to Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, which I also don't remember particularly well (maybe it's time to stop smoking pot), so I'm reluctant to start naming vague, half-formed memories of it in the fear that they would be disinformation.
posted by nathancaswell at 6:37 AM on December 24, 2006

I think its most likely that you have the wrong magazine. I would cross-check New Yorker/Atlantic, etc. A staffer just did a ten minute check and reports "no dice."
posted by RJ Reynolds at 3:14 PM on December 24, 2006