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The Stories
The Stories | Jane Gardam
6 posts | 6 read | 15 to read
Throughout her career, prize-winning novelist Jane Gardam has been writing glorious short stories, each one hallmarked with all the originality, poignancy, wry comedy and narrative brilliance of her longer fiction. Passion and longing, metamorphosis and enchantment are Gardam's themes, and like a magician she plucks them from the quietest of corners: from Wimbledon gardens and cold churches, from London buses and industrial backstreets. A mother watching her children on the beach dreams of a long-lost lover, an abandoned army wife sees a ghost at a moorland gate, a translator adrift in Geneva is haunted by the unspeakable manifestation of her own fears, and a colonial servant wreaks a delicious revenge on her monstrous masters. Gardam's cast is wide and wonderful, saints and mystics, trollops and curmudgeons, yearning mothers and lost children, beloved figures such as Old Filth and less familiar - but equally unforgettable - characters like Signor Settimo, the sad-eyed provincial photographer marooned in Shipley or Florrie Ironside, the ferocious matron he seduces. With a mischievous ear for dialogue, a glittering eye for detail and a capacious understanding of the vagaries of the human heart, Jane Gardam's stories will captivate, sadden and delight.
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Centique
The Stories | Jane Gardam
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I‘m kicking myself because i had almost finished this book and then the library insisted i bring it back 😂 But it was probably the best collection of short stories I‘ve ever read! That is - if you like authors like Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner, maybe Penelope Lively. These are frequently bittersweet stories where the main character is a woman, often an older woman, and they focus on love and grief and ageing and mistakes and chances lost and ⬇️

Centique …who we admired and who we should have noticed…They were written in the 60s onwards throughout her writing career. Very English, often a village or coastal setting, and often sweet on the outside with a hidden blade inside! 4d
Cathythoughts Wonderful review 👍🏻❤️ Stacked 4d
Centique @Cathythoughts thank you Cathy! 4d
See All 8 Comments
kspenmoll Lovely review. Stacked! 4d
LeahBergen You hooked me here! Stacked! 3d
Centique @kspenmoll @LeahBergen i hope you both like this! I am definitely going to be gifting it to a few people 💕 3d
Rissreadswithcats Sounds like my kind of book! 💙 3d
CarolynM High praise! Stacking, obviously😊😘 2d
66 likes10 stack adds8 comments
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Aimeesue
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My #top10ofthedecade #fictionedition - these being favorite books that I've actually read which were published in the past ten years. (Really 12 because I cheat and like grids to be balanced🤷🏻‍♀️)

BarbaraBB Great choices! 5y
LeahBergen I‘ve been meaning to buy Old Baggage. 👍🏻 5y
squirrelbrain I have The Buried Giant on my shelf to read.... 5y
See All 18 Comments
Aimeesue @BarbaraBB And what a weird range! 😂 5y
Aimeesue @LeahBergen Old Baggage is sooooooo good! Have you read Crooked Heart? Not essential, but good companion piece. 5y
Aimeesue @squirrelbrain People seem to either love it or hate it. I thought it was great. 5y
TrishB Loved Old Baggage. I‘m in the no thanks camp for The Buried Giant though! 5y
Lindy I‘m glad you‘ve included titles that I was very sorry to strike from my list. (Mr Fox, Buried Giant, Life After Life, & On Earth We‘re Briefly Gorgeous) 👍 5y
Aimeesue @TrishB I think about Maddie all the time! 5y
Aimeesue @Lindy I'm sure you could find a way around that. The Books in Translation list was very clever thinking! 😁 5y
LeahBergen I haven‘t read Crooked Heart. Should I read it before? 5y
Aimeesue @LeahBergen If I had the choice, I would. Kind of adds to the experience of Mattie. It truly doesn‘t matter, though, and the events in CH take place way after those in OB. So, either/or. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 5y
LeahBergen Ah, good to know! Thank you. 5y
Freespirit Lots there I haven't read...and need to😊 5y
jillrhudy @LeahBergen I'd bet $100 right this minute on that as a Pick for you! 5y
LeahBergen @jillrhudy 😆😆 Oh good!! 5y
41 likes18 comments
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Aimeesue
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Gardam is one of my favorite authors, and this is a fantastic collection. On sale today in US ebook stores.
Seriously, she's brilliant.

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jillrhudy
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Jane Gardam has the kind of gift for description that one rarely encounters in an author, the ability to draw a compelling character in just a few lines. @Aimeesue will agree on this point!

Aimeesue OMGoodness, yes! She's brilliant! And economical! 😄 6y
Ruthiella Totally agree! That ability amazes me!😍 6y
15 likes2 comments
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Aimeesue
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From "The Pangs of Love" a witty take on the aftermath of the HC Andersen The Little Mermaid tale. This is not a typical subject of Gardam's writing, which mostly centers on older people and their emotional lives, which sounds boring, but honestly isn't. She's very Austen-like in a lot of ways, and The Sidwell Letters is one of the best short stories I've ever read.
And she's very, very funny.

jillrhudy 🤣🤣🤣 6y
jillrhudy Tennessee READS had this on Libby. Downloaded & headed straight to this story. 6y
jillrhudy Oh how adorable. I haven‘t read any really good flipped fairy tale short fiction in years. Atwood is my go-to. 6y
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Aimeesue @jillrhudy I'm so glad you found a copy! Can't wait to hear what you think of The Sidmouth Letters. 6y
jillrhudy I have “Faith Fox“ and “A Long Way From Verona“ in my library section. Have you read either? 6y
Aimeesue @jillrhudy Not yet, but I own both. Verona is supposed to be excellent. And it just arrived today! I‘m just starting Crusoe‘s Daughter, after reading the Defoe. 6y
18 likes1 stack add6 comments
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Aimeesue
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Her books are just so good!
But also I want to buy all the Europa editions of her stuff because they‘re just so pretty.

Ruthiella I love her writing! 😍 6y
Aimeesue @Ruthiella She is fabulous. So under Appreciated! 6y
Anna40 Agree. Great writer! 6y
Aimeesue @Anna40 More people should read her! 6y
30 likes1 stack add4 comments