'Dauntingly fresh' OBSERVER
'Hot, sparkling and exciting' INDEPENDENT
'Mercurial and elusive' ADAM MARS-JONES
A. L. Barker dissects the unnerving emotions of everyday life with the sly humour and exquisite feel for language that prompted Auberon Waugh to declare that she 'writes like an angel and I love her'.
In her tenth collection of stories, Barker unfolds tales of cunning, fancy and shifting alliances. Here a young boy fosters grand illusions; a wife faces broken promises; a dutiful committee woman meets a sparky old gentleman; a witch is drowned; an intruder insinuates himself into a lonely woman's holiday; and commonplace superstition mingles effortlessly with submerged desire.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9781860499289
Number of pages: 256
Weight: 310 g
Dimensions: 200 x 125 x 15 mm
Marries the deadpan timing of Kingsley Amis at his driest with a tinge of eerie nature-mysticism that brings Iris Murdoch to mind .... Hot, sparkling, exciting - Boyd Tonkin, Independent
Almost dauntingly fresh -- glancing, mercurial, elusive - Observer
Her prose is like the botanical flower paintings at Kew: 17 washes precede the final glaze - Jane Gardam, Spectator
Glancing, mercurial, elusive - Adam Mars-Jones
She writes like an angel and I love her - Auberon Waugh
Barker has come full circle, and the short story reigns triumphant - Elizabeth Berridge, Guardian
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
