Rose Tremain's Sacred Country (1992) London: Sceptre – Hodder and Stoughton, 1993. I was thrilled with this book. So thrilled that, although I had read almost half of it before I lost track of it in a chaotic part of the year, I re-read that half willingly on a second
They don't have to be lumped in with your vegetables, with what you think is good for you: there are some terrific short story collections just waiting to shatter your expectations of the form. Ivan Coyote's Missed Her Arsenal Pulp, 2010 These stories are very short (usually 4 pages), so
Farzana Doctor's Stealing Nasreen Inanna Publications, 2007 This debut novel opens with an introduction to Shaffiq, a member of the cleaning staff, working the night shift, pulling a photograph torn in two from the garbage can he is emptying. He is fascinated by "clues and curiosities", shares them with his
Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestry Suzette Mayr's Monoceros Coach House Books, 2011 Nowadays, it's been Disney-fied, but once-upon-a-time the unicorn wasn't about pink glitter and rainbows, but about raw passions, about what cannot be tamed. In one of Da Vinci's notebooks is this note: "The unicorn, through its
Timothy Findley's Spadework (2001) This is an author who has been particularly important to me. In that peculiar way in which someone with whom you have had virtually no contact can affect you more than people with whom you have spent years of your life. So I delayed reading his
