✨ Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be involved in the Fairlight Moderns Blog Tour ✨
A collection of new short modern fictions from around the world
The books in the novella series are: Inside the Bone Box by Anthony Ferner, Travelling in the Dark by Emma Timpany, There are Things I Know by Karen B. Golightly, Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn, The Driveaway Has Two Sides by Sara Marchant.
Most of the authors within the series are award-winning literary short story or flash fiction writers who are turning to longer fiction for the first time.
✩ Here's a taster of what they are all about ✩
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Fairlight Moderns
11 July 2018 |
Nicholas Anderton is a highly respected neurosurgeon at the top of his field. But behind the successful façade all is not well. Tormented by a toxic marriage and haunted by past mistakes, Anderton has been eating to forget. His wife, meanwhile, has turned to drink.
There are sniggers behind closed doors – how can a surgeon be fat, they whisper; when mistakes are made and his old adversary Nash steps in to take advantage, Anderton knows that things are coming to a head.
My thoughts...
Stressed and harassed in both his personal and professional life, Nicholas Anderton, a once respected neurosurgeon, is the total embodiment of a life that has lost all meaning. Turning to gluttonous eating is not the answer but for Nicholas it's a means of escape from the poison that infiltrates his life. Perceptively and intuitively written Inside the Bone Box is a fascinating look at the vagaries of human nature.
My thanks to the publishers for my proof copy of this novella.
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Fairlight Moderns
11 July 2018 |
Travelling back to her home town with her young son, Sarah is ready to face up to what she ran away from ten years ago.
As delays and diversions force her to return to well-known places from her youth, Sarah reflects on the relationships with her family and the events of the past that have shaped her present.
Set in the wild, beautiful and unreliable landscape of southern New Zealand, Emma Timpany’s novella is an evocative story of a woman coming to terms with her past.
My thoughts...
Travelling in the Dark is a quietly
reflective story which links the present whilst rationalising the past. Set against
the wildness of Southern New Zealand, both the place and the people come beautifully
alive. There’s a lyrical quality to the narrative which I thought beautifully expressed
the emotion of returning to a place where memories run deep.
My thanks to the publishers for my proof copy of this novella.
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Fairlight Moderns
11 July 2018 |
Eight-year-old Pepper sees the world a little differently from most people.
One day, during a school field trip, Pepper is kidnapped by a stranger and driven to rural Arkansas. The man, who calls himself ‘Uncle Dan’, claims that Pepper’s mother has died and they are to live together from now on – but the boy isn’t convinced.
Pepper always found it hard to figure out when people are lying, but he’s absolutely certain his mother is alive, and he’s going to find her.
My thoughts...
There Are Things I Know is a beautifully observed story which has a very dark theme at its core and yet, there is a real sense of connection with eight year old Pepper who, it must be said, is the real hero of this tale. Perceptive, insightful and succinctly written there is never a word wasted or an emotion unexpressed.
My thanks to the publishers for my proof copy of this novella.
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Fairlight Moderns
11 July 2018 |
When Alina’s brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her husband become persons of interest to the secret services, causing both of their careers to come grinding to a halt.
As the strain takes its toll on their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for help – the wife of a communist leader and a secret practitioner of the old folk ways.
Set in 1970s communist Romania, Sophie van Llewyn’s novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles, that can’t be put down.
My thoughts...
Romania in the days of its oppression is the focus for
Bottle Goods which is quite a dark little story in places and yet, the whole of this novella-in-flash is tempered by some light touches of magical realism which bring the story alive in a very different sort of way. I enjoyed the short vignettes and the flash fiction approach to the individual chapters.
My thanks to the publishers for my proof copy of this novella.
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Fairlight Moderns
11 July 2018 |
On an East Coast island, full of tall pine moaning with sea gusts, Delilah moves into a cottage by the shore. The neighbours gossip as they watch her clean, black hair tied back in a white rubber band. They don’t like it when she plants a garden out front – orange red carpinus caroliniana and silvery blue hosta. Very unusual, they whisper.
Across the driveway lives a man who never goes out. Delilah knows he’s watching her too and she likes the look of him, but perhaps life is too complicated already.
My thoughts...
Delilah arrives in a small East Coast tourist town and turns the lives of three men completely upside down. Beautifully written and with a fine eye for even the smallest of detail, The Driveway Has two Sides is an interesting story about the fundamentals of identity and how we keep so much hidden, not just from ourselves but also from others.
My thanks to the publishers for my proof copy of this novella.
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