Cultured Llama

A Short History of Synchronised Breathing and other stories, by Vanessa Gebbie, has been reviewed in the lovely Frogmore Papers (a favourite litmag at Cultured Llama HQ). Here is what Charlotte Gann has to say:

These stories are elegantly varied while strangely united. Peopled by characters living in some degree of dislocation or isolation, they’re funny, serious and compassionate. (I’ll remember the divorced taxi driver, Frank, carrying his fare without direction.) Often surreal, many contemplate past relationships, especially marriages, and are riddled with irreverence, ribaldry and flights of fancy, as well as reflections on the process of writing. Overall, they seem to me quirky blueprints for getting by – most, arguably, more sustainable than a nationwide programme of synchronised breathing!

A Short History of Synchronised Breathing and other stories costs £12 plus p@p. Order two books or more and post and packing is free.

Readers have great things to say about The Lost of Syros, stories by Emma Timpany. An anonymous reader says:

This short story collection is a joy to read. I had a sense of the generosity of the writer, as I entered each story and found it to be a different world. In a strange way, the experience was somewhat like the satisfaction I had reading ‘The Examined Life’ by Stephen Grosz (a brilliant, heart-warming book), because what Emma gives the reader is a series of insights into very varied lives. Emma Timpany is a writer’s writer: one of the best. Her style is unobtrusive, but lyrical. Often I don’t read every story in a collection, but with this one, I found each one had something very different to offer. These stories are revealing, intriguing, funny at times and shot through with beauty.

Victoria Field adds:

Accomplished and riveting short stories mostly centred on the experiences of girls and young women, always vividly located in a specific place. There’s a sense of loss and confusion, of things not always being what they seem, a kind of fugitive grief., even if as in one story, there’s a happy ending when the lost child is found. I loved this book.

The Lost of Syros costs £12 plus p@p. Order two books or more and post and packing is free.

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