Enchanting Short Stories out now: Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar, The News
Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar (Arcadia £16.99, 208pp)
Amal El-Mohtar is available now
El-Mohtar is the author of superb speculative fiction, including the bestselling This Is How You Lose The Time War where lush words and dark magic collide.
In these short stories her prose is just as enchanting.
In the titular story Tabitha walks in iron shoes at the behest of her bearish husband who speaks to her ‘in the language of thorns and claws’.
In The Green Book a young girl’s voice is trapped in the pages of an ancient tome, her captive words desperately unspooling; while the heart-rending A Tale of Ash In Seven Birds beautifully describes how refugees ‘bow (our) heads, and change’ to survive, transforming from sparrow to crow, cormorant to swallow, from hummingbird to owl in traumatic circumstances.
The News From Dublin by Colm Toibin (Picador £20, 272pp)
Elegant and economical, these understated stories delve into the hearts of Toibin’s characters as they face grief and sadness, loss and loneliness.
Set in Barcelona, San Francisco and Dublin, the tales carry an emotional weight that belies the lightness of Toibin’s touch, as seen in The Journey To Galway when a mother hears of the death of her soldier son.
In Five Bridges a Dublin man, illegally working in America, is forced to return home, leaving behind his daughter and his ramshackle past; while in A Sum Of Money, a boy from a poor background begins picking locks and pilfering money from the wealthier boarders at a Christian Brothers school, in a quietly powerful tale of class, privilege and religion.
The Python’s Kiss by Louise Erdrich (Corsair £20, 240pp)
The Python’s Kiss is available now
Written over the past two decades, these 13 tales are rooted in the tender portrayal of farmers, mothers, artists and teachers.
The captivating collection opens with Python’s Kiss, which stars a snake, a lovesick guard dog and a young girl who’s pondering the nature of freedom and connection, as she gazes into the ‘wise, primordial face’ of an escaped python.
Wedding Dresses chronicles the romances of artist Dora, who’s given up on marriage, but still has a soft spot for her alcoholic ex husband, while the fantastic The Hollow Children recounts a school bus journey during a snow storm.