I might rather give this 3.5 or 3.75, but skewing up for ambition. Although the characters were so well drawn it was hard to let go of them and move to the next story, I disagree with the reviewers who felt that it was a flaw in the book to keep each storyline separate. The author faced tradeoffs...
The author chooses a note-like style, and dialogue is signalled by dashes. This has the effect of enfolding everything into a continuous whole of connected thought, word and deed as the characters seem to engage in a dance around each other. It has an almost hypnotic effect and kept me reading, a...
She heard a noise a while ago, fell asleep, then woke again. Lying still, with the night wrapped quiet around her, frost-flowers blooming across the windowpane. Lore’s limbs are warm and heavy. She’s not sure now if she only imagined it, watching the walls and window and ceiling unfolding, and be...
The beekeeper was walking with honey pots in his pockets. One mile north along the line of the valley, up on the rise above the stream. The hives seemed further from the house this year, and the old man kept what felt like a steady pace, but his progress through the winter grass was slow. Eyes se...
He was out of his buggy and inside the close before his Dad could catch him. And then his Dad was there and swinging him high onto his shoulders; so high that Stevie had to grab a handful of his T-shirt, leaning against his warm neck, lurching up the first flight and on. “Haud tight. We’re up the...