Wiola lives in a close-knit agricultural community. Wiola has a black cat called Blackie. Wiola's father was a deserter but now he is a taxidermist. Wiola's mother tells her that killing spiders brings on storms. Wiola must never enter the seamstress's 'secret' room. Wiola collects matchbox labels. Wiola is a good Catholic girl brought up with fables and nurtured on superstition. Wiola lives in a Poland that is both very recent and lost in time.
Swallowing Mercury is about the ordinary passing of years filled with extraordinary days. In vivid prose filled with texture, colour and sound, it describes the adult world encroaching on the child's. From childhood to adolescence, Wiola dances to the strange music of her own imagination.
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781846276095
Number of pages: 160
Weight: 119 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 9 mm
Picked this up at work on a whim because I liked the cover and the blurb. It wasn't quite what the blurb had led me to expect somehow...perhaps it was less fanciful than I expected? It's also not really a... More
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