Tag: short-story

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He came home every night from the pub using both sides of the road

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Eoin McNamee, Northern Irish writer from Kilkeel, County Down, whose novels are mostly based on real crimes (although his 2007 novel 12:23 was about the death of Princess Diana), The Comets, is his first collection of short fiction, which includes two novellas and 15 punchy shorts. A fairground dodgems ride, “poles struck blue fire from the roof grid and the comets blazed across the rink”. In several stories an abandoned aerodrome acquires sinister, Ballardian quality.  In “Walking North, Walking Home,” a woman, adopted in childhood, sets out to find her birth mother, but finds instead a kindred spirit in a … Continue reading He came home every night from the pub using both sides of the road

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Alone and betrayed

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THE TURNING POINT  – A short story by Penny Nair Price The newsagent opened his door at 7 am and waited for his favourite and most reliable customer, serving one or two others before his arrival.  At 7.45, or as near as dammit, the white stick poked round the door and Frederick Orange entered, with his familiar expression of a mixture of pleasure and distaste playing round his mouth, as he tapped his way to the counter and bought his lucky dip ticket for the Friday draw, and a pack of his favourite cigarettes, together with some extra strong mints. The newsagent … Continue reading Alone and betrayed

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Psyche of a teenage sniper

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Mathias Énard’s first novel, revolves around an unnamed city completely torn apart by civil war, a teenage sniper has only one goal: to fire the perfect shot. He sublimates himself into his weapon, controls his breath, stays serenely calm, and listen to his body and the beat of his heart. Lying in wait on rooftops, he shoots at civilians amid the movement of seagulls in the dawn sky.  At dawn he finds that the light is perfect- not too blinding, no reflections- and people are less careful. In one scene, he is soothed by the sight of a woman falling “like … Continue reading Psyche of a teenage sniper

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Needle in a loop of silent waves, fine-tuning out of Trauma

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Jamaica-born British writer Jacqueline’s new novel “Sky City” set in early 1990s North London, where a young mixed-race woman, Jaycee, lives alone in a sparsely furnished apartment in a block above a shopping centre, with just a DJ on the radio for company. She is isolated, her best friend Ella-G moved to New York, and she never takes time off from her job as a legal secretary because she “craves the order of the workplace”. Music is still crucial, “Walls hummed with overdriven bass lines. Doors bounced in their frames”- but the escape it offers Jaycee is not ecstatic but … Continue reading Needle in a loop of silent waves, fine-tuning out of Trauma

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Life of Outcasts with tainted nobility who scrub and clean the stains of our consumer society

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Canadian writer, social worker, and sociologist, Simon Paré-Poupar who did his first round as garbageman in Montreal as a teenager in “Trash” writes “The Garbageman is the Sisyphus of our consumer society. My fellow garbagemen and I scrub clean the stains of our consumer society.” He says he has personally shifted nearly 70, 000 tonnes of junk, but he and his peers are given a wide berth by the households they serve, “people thank the courier… the mover, and the small carrier. But they barely see the garbageman. They wish we could be invisible, just as they hope their garbage … Continue reading Life of Outcasts with tainted nobility who scrub and clean the stains of our consumer society

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Sir Garfield Sobers dies at 89

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West Indies cricket legend Sir Garfield Sobers who held Test record of 365 not out against Pakistan in 1958, for 36 years, passed away aged 89. Between 1954 and 1974,  left-hander Sobers whose stroke play attracted huge crowds, turned out in 93 Test matches for the Caribbean side, totalling 8032 runs and claiming 235 wickets.  His contribution in cricket earned him a Knighthood in 1975, and he was later honoured as one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the twentieth century/ Tributes came from Sunil Gavaskar who described it as a perhaps the most sorrowful day cricket has ever witnessed, calling Sobers the … Continue reading Sir Garfield Sobers dies at 89

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Rise and dominance of the world’s first “Jet age lion of cricket”

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West Indian all-rounder Garry Sobers, got 90 votes in the 2000 Wisden, the bible of cricket, which named the five best players of the 20th century, a choice made by 100 voters from around the world.  Duncan Hamilton in The Man Who Walked Out of the Sun,  fell in love with Sobers when he was a schoolboy in Nottingham, and over the years  followed him around the country as he spoke at lunches and dinners. But he only once approached Sobers and that to request an autograph. He never asked for an interview when writing this book. Instead of contacting Sobers, Hamilton has … Continue reading Rise and dominance of the world’s first “Jet age lion of cricket”

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Friendship that can shatters people and compassion that can hold some of these pieces together

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The Left and the Lucky is the moving large-hearted story of a young boy in danger of slipping through society’s cracks and the unlikely father figure who takes him under his wing. “And try to breathe, man. You gotta remember to breathe. You won’t get so panicky if you can remember that.” This novel is about neighbourliness in Portland, Oregon. Eddie Wilkens runs his own house-painting business ( a job Vlautin did in his thirties while trying to make it as a writer and musician). Eddie primes and refreshes the walls and windows of well-heeled locals, while covering up the cracks … Continue reading Friendship that can shatters people and compassion that can hold some of these pieces together

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Metamorphosis and morality…

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Silver polisher, Flora, a 40-year-old Londoner visiting her family in Mexico – where Aridjis spent some of her childhood, is bitten on the hand by their dog Diego, who knows her well, but he is old with cataracts and saw nothing but “a disembodied hand”. She winds up in hospital where she undergoes several surgeries under anaesthesia “three surgeries… each time it felt sawn in half and put back together”.  The hospital becomes a hermetic space for Flora, sealed off from the outside world. She meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects pre-cinema toys and instruments. The two … Continue reading Metamorphosis and morality…

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Sole witness to a deadly crime

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Ava Glass introduces Maya Landry, who’s seeking a fresh start deep in the Rocky Mountains of Montana after a messy divorce. When a senator is murdered, Landry’s sanctuary turns into a place of danger and she is forced on the run. She reinvents herself and moves to Texas to work as a barmaid and waitress.  She is relieved when she’s hired as a summer keeper of billionaire owned ski lodges left empty after snow season ends, and her new life of peace and isolation is going exactly as hope… until she stumbles across a dead body on the living room floor … Continue reading Sole witness to a deadly crime