If you've read both of these authors, you're probably wondering what they're doing here, sharing a title and a post like this. But as I was reading them, the other evening before bed, I was struck by a fundamental connection, in the way that I was read these novels (not
Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins NY: HarperCollins, 1997. “When young writers write to me about following in the footsteps of those who string together nouns and verbs for a living, I tell them this: every story has already been told,” said Anna Quindlen, delivering the
Michael Cunningham's By Nightfall Harper Collins, 2010 I read Michael Cunningham's first novel, A Home at the End of the World last month, and wholly enjoyed it. Nearly as much as The Hours, but the bookishness of the latter (or, perhaps I should say, the Woolfishness) left it in the
Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) Trans. Alan Russell Penguin, 1987 If you've been following along, you'll know that I was thrilled to join, and have wholly enjoyed the early discussion connected with, Frances' readalong of this classic novel, one which I had false-started with as a younger woman but had
David Bergen's The Matter with Morris Harper Collins, 2010 You might have guessed that David Bergen's The Time in Between wasn't my favourite book from the Giller Prize shortlist of 2005. It wasn't that I disliked it, so much as I felt disconnected from it. It felt like a universal
