AAAA
Alice looks at the phone and then glances at the
alarm clock. 13:55 pm EST makes - she counts on her fingers - about 6pm in Berlin.
He’ll be on his way home. Alice settles into the armchair and dials the number...

If Alice hadn't bumped into Will then she would probably never have phoned that afternoon. And if Alice hadn't called then Michael, poor Michael, might still be alive today...

“Both short story collection and novel, 13:55 Eastern Standard Time finds Nick Alexander at his best. Sometimes disturbing, sometimes
funny, these are stories of lives that cross and collide in life-ending drama, or simply run peacefully alongside for a few hours - lives
filled with characters who are attracted and repelled, hopeless and yet inspired.

Narrated in Alexander's trademark tense prose, these interwoven stories explore the ripples emanating from our every act, ripples
that alter distant destinies, and occasionally bounce back, catching us from behind to haunt or inspire. 13:55 Eastern Standard Time repeats the success of Alexander's first novel, 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye because again, as with life itself, the whole is mysteriously greater than the sum of the parts.




Selected Press Reviews:

Rob Dawson – Gay Times Magazine, May 2007

Following the success of his previous trilogy, 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye, Sottopassaggio and Good Thing, Bad Thing, Nick Alexander shows he’s here to stay with yet another literary treasure exploring the wonders of the human condition.
In a world where the Internet is omnipresent and communication links are global, it’s easy to forget that our lives can be connected by something greater than technology. In 13:55 EST, Alexander explores the mysterious connections that determine fate and the fragile threads that weave destinies together.
It’s these that make this book shine. The rebellious actions of a Chinese factory worker rescue a New York singleton from her solemn loneliness. This prompts the death of her brother, following a phone call that’s long overdue. Soon you’re back, full circle where you began, having traveled via sex, tragedy, love and desire.
Each story is shaped and influenced by those preceding it, and as one character’s emotions, thoughts and actions are played out, the ripples they create collide to form storms that sweep through the lives of others.
Alexander’s thought provoking prose describes familiar and obscure scenarios, but you’re left questioning the consequences of everyday life, and wondering how many people’s lives have been touched by your own existence.
With alluring encounters, fast paced drama and inspiring twists, 13:55 EST is a sublime triumph.


Wayne Clews - Attitude Magazine – July 2007

The latest book from the author of 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye is part short story collection and part novel.  In a series of vignettes and set-pieces, the reader is whisked around the world from China to New York, London and Berlin, each story leading on from the next and characters reappearing and disappearing as Alexander shows us, in this hi-tech digital age, just how one small action we make (a phone call, a chance remark, a quick fumble in the sack....) can have untold ramifications on the other side of the world.  Demonstrating Alexander's sheer range as a writer, 13:55 is a brave and tender book that explores the fault lines of human frailty and our all-consuming desire to be loved.


OneEighty News – 8th June 2007

When is a novel also a collection of short stories? When gay author Nick Alexander takes 20 characters from around the world and links their lives together in his new book, 13:55 Eastern Standard Time. A factory worker in China rebels against a foreman by damaging two iPods on her conveyor belt. In New York, Alice meets Will as they return the faulty iPods to the store. Touched by the meeting, Alice telephones her brother in Berlin as he crosses a busy bus lane. The chain of events ripples across the world and gives erotic, heartbreaking and inspiring insights into the human condition. And this is the book’s underlying theme: that we are all connected by our common humanity. Brilliantly clever and well worth a read. 13:55 Eastern Standard Time is out now.


James Ledward - Gscene - July 2007

If I’m honest titles like this often put me off - I think sci-fi, or experimental, and this novel is neither. It’s about the connections we all have with people all over the world, whether they are relatives, or the badly paid workers in China who construct our iPods. Nick writes assuredly and economically; he draws the outlines and leaves the reader to do the colouring-in – I like that. There aren’t great long descriptions of people or places, but there are some great dialogues, and I suspect Nick enjoyed putting words into his characters mouths.
Here’s the low down on Scientology:
“I don’t know. Is it bizarre? Scientology I mean? I’m not sure you should,
you know, diss someone else’s religion.”
“Oh come on. Scientology is awesomely bizarre. It was all invented by this
science fiction writer, Ron Hubbard? They believe that we’re all spirits
from outer space, called Thetans. And we, like, came here on a space ship
and were put into volcanoes. And when the volcanoes erupted the spirits flew
out and inhabited the humans.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
“Ok, so that’s bizarre…”
The blurb on the back cover says 13.55 EST is both a short story collection and a novel, and although some chapters seem at odds with the central themes and characters, and you do find yourself momentarily wondering what on earth this bit has to do with Alice – they all share an underlying philosophy – that we all have choices. It takes Alice the whole book to grasp this principle, because in this book pennies drop slowly but beautifully. A thought-provoking novel, highly recommended. Published by BIGfib Books at £8.99

David Llewellyn – Time Out London, June 7th 2007

Question: when is a collection of short stories not a collection of short stories? Answer: when it’s a novel. And when is a novel not a novel? When it’s a collection of short stories.
Nick Alexander’s 13:55 Eastern Standard Time is one of those books. It belongs to a genre in both literature and film for which, as far as I know, there is no name. It follows in the footsteps of Shortcuts, Magnolia and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s morbidly titled Death Trilogy, in that it weaves together a tapestry of multiple narratives and characters through chance meetings and meaningful confidences.
The overall effect is dazzling. First we meet Hua Juan, a pregnant girl testing iPods in a Chinese sweatshop. Then we meet Alice, the lonely New Yorker who buys one of said iPods. Then we meet Will, the guy behind her in the queue in the shop where she buys her iPod. You get the idea.
There is a risk with this genre that we are introduced to and whisked away from so many characters with such frequency, we might fail to fully engage with them. But Alexander is a master of minimalism, a literary Philip Glass if you like. He drives home the emotional content in single, and often devastatingly telling lines.
What I especially liked about 13:55… was its optimism, its hope. There is a tendency (see the aforementioned Death Trilogy) for this genre to be plagued with doom and gloom, but here, alongside the poignant and the tragic, we have characters and scenes that will have you smiling for days. I defy anyone not to fall in love with Will and Jude and their decision to live ‘the good life’, or to feel their lower lip tremble with sympathy at Alice’s plight in the Big Apple. The characters (or stories) are short, making this book an ideal commuter read, but each one leaves an indelible mark.
‘13:55 Eastern Standard Time’ is a novel, a collection of short stories, and a whole lot more besides.


Cliff James GHQ Magazine August 2007

After his debut novel was rejected by every publisher in the world, gay author Nick Alexander decided that self-publishing was the only way forward.
The release of his first book, 50 Reasons to Say Goodbye in 2004 was followed by Sottopassaggio a year later, and Good Thing, Bad Thing in 2006. The trilogy has been re-published by BIGfib Books, and is now among the UK's best selling gay literature.
In a departure from his earlier work, Alexander's latest book, 13:55 Eastern Standard Time, moves beyond the introverted narrative of gay self-discovery, and addresses wider issues relating to the interconnectedness of humankind.
Part novel, part collection of short stories, 13:55 provides a series of vignettes about strangers around the world whose lives are subtly linked by the invisible threads of globalisation, modern technology and common humanity.
A factory worker in China secretly rebels against her overbearing floor manager by damaging two iPods that pass by on her conveyor belt. In New York, a lonely newcomer to the city returns her faulty iPod to the store where she bought it and befriends a guy who is doing the same. As a result of this new friendship, the woman telephones her brother on his mobile phone in Berlin as he is crossing a busy bus lane. The consequent road accident affects more lives, sets off more chain reactions, until events lead full circle, back to the factory worker in China.
As easy as it would have been for Nick Alexander to imply, there is no orderriding destiny behind these events. Each accidental collision of characters is just that, a random accident in a chaotic universe. There is no essential meaning behind the haphazard hits and misses of lives. The most that can be done, as E. M. Forster, might say, is only connect.
Nick Alexander's writing has matured in 13:55 Eastern Standard Time. He offers erotic, heartbreaking and inspiring insights into the various tableaux of human conditions, and joins the dots between ever-decreasing degrees of separation. Highly recommended, it's subtly clever and well worth a read.

Read Nick Alexander's Author Profile <here>


13:55 Eastern Standard Time was published by BIGfib in 2007. Buy it <here>.

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