My last short story post was in Autumn 2013 and focussed on recently published collections (Rosemary Nixon's Are You Ready to be Lucky? Elisabeth de Mariaffi’s How to Get Along with Women, and Shaena Lambert’s Oh, My Darling). Cormorant Books, 2000 In recent weeks I have been dabbling in some volumes on my shelves,
An engrossing story, a compelling narrative voice: Three Souls is an easy book to recommend. Because of the setting and romantic elements of the story, it's tempting to draw comparisons with the novels of Amy Tan and Ai Mi. Given the readability, one might think of Sue Monk Kidd's The
As the writer for HBO's "The Wire" and "Treme", George Pelecanos' reputation is impeccable. His style is succinct, polished. And he is as skilled at drawing intense, vivid scenes as he is at casting a wide story arc, allowing characterization to take centre stage. His Lucas Spero mysteries showcase all
Setting Mary Swan's novella The Deep alongside her recent novel My Ghosts, the blues in their covers are rich and varied. The cover of one features statuary, a feminine form, opaque but graceful; the cover of the other showcases a butterfly, luminescent and fragile. They seem to intertwine. And one
Reading Craig Davidson's Cataract City took me somewhere else. You might think, if you have heard something of the novel, that I am about to say Niagara Falls. But as much as the novel is about two boys' coming-of-age in this environs, it is a study of how 'what-came-before' morphs and
