During Mother's Absence

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781853817977

Price: £8.99

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Subversive, sensual tales, wise and witty fictions; this collection of short stories from one of Britain’s most acclaimed novelists is by turns shockingly delicious and soberingly disquieting. When mother is away taboos are breached, the untouchables embraced and the forbidden tasted.

In ‘Laundry’ a poor, plain girl takes devilish pleasure in outwitting the pious monks and nuns she washes for. In the haunting, powerful fable ‘Anger’ a young woman, branded by fire at birth by her mother is scarred- and blessed- for life. In the highly sensuous ‘Taking it Easy’ a mother with writers block finds an escape from the slavery of her twin enemies by turning them into food for thought. And in the beautiful, arresting ‘God’s House’ a young girl faces the ultimate mother’s absence.

Reviews

Wise, witty and haunting.
TIME OUT
A dark and witty book... exciting reading.
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Deep, sensual short stories of Europena provenance that hold your breath in their charm while you dare them to resolve happily ever after. Perhaps they do, but the delight of their delivery is that they quite equally might not. Read before sleep and drea
THE LIST
A majestically beguling collection of short stores moving effortlessly between haunting fables, teasing tales and... profoundly affecting accounts of sadness and loss... richly rewarding.
SUNDAY TIMES