The Memory Keeper

 

 

In these eighteen linked stories, the reader accompanies our heroine Noela (“born on Santa Clause’s Day!”) as she develops from an insecure Daddy’s Girl into a woman willing and able to stand on her own. Go on this journey with her as she meets challenge after challenge and as her relationships with all around her change.

The Memory Keeper is a collection of tales about a life well learnt in S. Nadja Zajdman’s distinctive story-teller voice.

RRP £9.00

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This is a delightful collection of memoir-style stories. Some are quirky, some funny, and some touch on the harrowing; but they are always engaging. They have a wonderful sense of tenacity and an accuracy that is uncompromising when it comes to family relationships. I found myself wishing there were more. I also like the fact that this author doesn’t spoon-feed the reader – sometimes you have to work at it to understand who is speaking, but it is always worth the wait. A really lovely collection -I’m going to read mine again.

Fresh Beginnings

 

An intriguing mixture of stories, all in Leela Dutt’s inimitable style – something here for everyone, and beautifully illustrated by Kate Attfield.

Some are short and funny, some poignant – widows faced with losing their grandchildren, a daughter burying her father and dealing with a domineering mother. One endearing narrator is not human at all but still strikes a chord with us. Time travellers visit Hans Andersen’s Copenhagen; a young German boy is welcomed by some but by no means all in Hertfordshire just after the war. Perilous adventures in a hire car in the south of France are described by a lad who is unaware that at the very moment he’s telling us about his family holiday, London is under attack. A young Japanese car manufacturer encounters the strange people of the South Wales Valleys – and their grandfather who was a prisoner of war in Burma. Finally the life story of a Quaker celebrating her ninetieth birthday at the end of the century.

Leela Dutt’s collection Fresh Beginnings will warm your heart and stay in your mind – it might even make you laugh!

RRP £8.00 

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Fresh Beginnings, the new collection of short stories by Leela Dutt, maintains the high standard of writing we expect from this original and engaging author.

 

Time, and its effects on us, is one of the intriguing themes explored in the collection. In A Royal Wedding, two teen-age cousins time-travel, entering the world of Hans Christian Andersen’s Copenhagen in order to find their missing relative, and find themselves helping another young person in the process.

 

In The Match, an elderly German movingly reminisces during a reunion with his English counterpart from the family who welcomed him as an adolescent after the Second World War, and with whom he has remained friends ever since.  The theme of reconciliation, foregrounded, in The Match, is a recurring one throughout the collection, as in The Ocarina, which treats of healing between nations, and in Blizzard, in which family strife is mended. On all occasions, the subject matter is handled with sensitivity and understanding. We believe in the characters who come to life on these pages, sympathise with their plight, and want to know what will happen to them.

 

 

Humour is also present, especially in A Touch of Natural History, with its charming simian narrator, and in the written correspondence of the title story, Fresh Beginnings, and in that of All in a Day’s Work. Comedy is balanced by thought-provoking stories such as Damage and The End of the Road, with its poignant conclusion.

 

What I will take from all these varied tales is a sense of the uplifting moments in life. I can recommend Fresh Beginnings to anyone searching for a positive and entertaining reading experience.

 

In Fresh Beginnings Leela Dutt shows us how stories can be found - whether in moments of change or in looking back on past experiences.  In this collection we are treated to the perspective of a chimpanzee, a journey through time, post-war hunger and reconciliation,  the blossoming of love and reflections on grief.   If you like short stories, if you like good stories, then Fresh Beginnings is for you.

Dr Kate North, Reader in Creative Writing, Cardiff Metropolitan University

 

Leela Dutt’s ‘Fresh Beginnings’ is a varied, interesting, imaginative and thought-provoking collection, offering the promise of change in the lives of ordinary people. When viewed from the perspective of an ape in ‘Bonobo’, human life is not far removed from theirs but the whole collection of stories suggests a higher moral dimension to our lives which makes us capable of empathy, forgiveness, reconciliation and, above all, gives us the chance to start again.
Kate Attfield’s lovely illustrations at the beginning of each story encapsulate the essence and give us a taste of what is to come.

Noisette

 

 

 

Rozia's U-log

 

In the year 3519 Rozia struggles to rebuild her shattered life.

She uses her U-log,  written in obscure Wordtext that only a few can read, to help herself to recover from  a serious injury,  to mend  a broken heart and to come to terms with a demanding new role. Will her new-found friends be able to help?  Espceially when she meets an even greater challenge?

Rozia's U-Log, a heart-wrenching and life-affriming story, bridges the gap between books two and three, Babel and The Tower  of Gill James' Peace Child  series.  

Enjoy reading the episodes now.

 

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What if .... by Anne Wilson

 

“What if?” An unanswered question. The unexplained, a mystery, a road not taken.

This is a collection of dark fiction injected here and there with glimmers of humour.

The author takes us on a surreal and ghostly journey from Latin America’s Day of the Dead, through the coastal towns of Lancashire, a pig farm in Denmark, a high-rise in Mallorca, a haunted vicarage at Christmas and a town centre coffee bar. The voices we hear are variously plaintive, nostalgic, and occasionally vindictive or vengeful: the testimonies and fears of the living and the dead.

Anne Wilson, writes about places she knows, imbuing the natural world and the everyday with disturbing fantasy and the supernatural.

RRP £7.00

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Some really effective and enjoyable stories, from the spooky to the deeply creepy, and deserving of a wide audience. The characterization of this collection is a particular strength, with every story having a distinct voice through dialogue or monologue.

Tony Fyler, Editor-in-chief Jefferson-Franklin Editing

 

 

he author weaves a thrilling web with her prose, creating delightful pocket worlds to entice and entrance the reader. These are stories that linger long in the mind after reading.  

 

In these short stories Anne Wilson takes everyday situations and adds an otherworldly twist. Suited for a bedtime read or for a brief commute to work, each tale, sad or sinister, is a self contained gem. Should be on radio or TV but perhaps with a trigger warning for the faint of heart. Loved it! 

 

Read a sample here: 

On the Day of the Dead

Mathias Mori stirs; his body stiff from the chill night air. His nose twitches under the old fedora covering his face, as an ant becomes separated from the detachment marching purposefully across his hat and finds its way into his moustache. Cautiously he raises his head to look around himself and winces with discomfort as the pistol tucked into his belt presses against his lower ribs.

Midnight is approaching and the little graveyard is quiet in the darkness. Here and there Mathias sees the low glow of still-flickering candles. Their light picks out remnants of food, sugar skulls and elaborate floral tributes. He sees a few remaining hushed and huddled figures: the weathered faces of the elderly, the painted faces of the young, craving the company of revenants.

Pale moonlight throws nearer marker crosses and stone memorials into black relief.

 

 

Two excellent collections of short stories for £12.00

 

Resilience is a single author collection from Bridge House Publishing. Jim Bates has a well-established voice and he brings us a substantial collection of emotionally-rich, thought-provoking stories.

RRP £9.00 

This collection of heart-felt short stories covers a huge array of emotions. Each story has a wonderful set of characters, all with an beautiful tale to tell as we step into their shoes and walk with them.'

'This is a lovely collection of short stories. Something that pervades the book is Jim’s focus on family and loving relationships, which feels positive and hopeful. '

'Reading the 27 stories in Resilience, the collection of short stories by Jim Bates, is like listening to one heartfelt tune after another being sung by 27 singers and never hearing an off-note. ' 

In this haunting collection, one of Jesse Falzoi’s characters imagines the word “Wuthering” means “From all directions and never the one you anticipated.” Using this definition, these are Wuthering stories, coming at life from many angles, each one full of surprise and illumination. Falzoi’s characters thrum with yearning—for connection, for meaning, for a place to be, to belong. They will find a permanent home inside your heart.

RRP £8.00

Jesse Falzoi’s A Place to Be is a collection of stories that burn in you long after you have read them - be prepared to be haunted by a strong voice, a strong sense of place and a strong energy driving each story. Falzoi is a hybrid AS Byatt and Raymond Carver - she combines an urgent, existential stark Minimalism with a complex tapestry of rich inner lives of her characters. Each story is a lattice, a delightful,  delicately woven fabric where relationships are held together by the finest of threads. These stories are sensitively told, emotionally taut, the words  explosive, the form inventive. A Place to Be is Einstein's cottage in candlelight, a chance encounter in the back seat of an ex-pimp's car in a barren nowhere place in Northern California, being barricaded with a mother and her children in an apartment in a post apocalyptic black out: these stories will surprise and dance in you, and burn their way into your heart.

Buy both together for just £12.00, including shipping.