Book Review ~ Escape Routes by Naomi Ishiguro

Headline
6 February 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

A space-obsessed child conjures up a vortex in his mother's airing cupboard. A musician finds her friendship with a flock of birds opens up unexpected possibilities. A rat catcher, summoned to a decaying royal palace, is plunged into a battle for the throne of a ruined kingdom. Two newlyweds find themselves inhibited by the arrival in their lives of an outsized and watchful stuffed bear.

Whether snared in traps artfully laid for them, or those of their own making, the characters in Naomi Ishiguro's delightfully speculative debut collection yearn for freedom and flight, and find their worlds transformed beyond their wildest imaginings.

What did I think about it..

In this collection of nine short stories the author allows a glimpse into the often strange and magical world of other people’s imagined lives. Escapes Routes offers a chance to leave the mundane behind and helps to transport the reader into an altogether more magical existence.

The collection is easy to dip into, making it one of those sets of short stories that you can carry around with you and find something interesting to peruse. Each of the stories are all decidedly different and whilst I didn’t like every story, I appreciated the author’s effort in making each of them unique in so many different ways. Each cleverly contrived story is complete within itself and allows the author’s emerging talent for storytelling to shine through.

Escape Routes is quirky, different and a highly accomplished debut by an emerging author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength in future writing projects.

About the Author

Naomi Ishiguro studied writing at the University of East Anglia and is a former bookseller and bibliotherapist at Mr B.’s Emporium in Bath. She lives in London.

Twitter@NaomiIshiguro #EscapeRoutes

@headlinepg