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Reviewed
by Avis Hickman-Gibb
This
was my first Route title. And I’ll definitely be reading more. The
stories ranged from M Y Alam's creepy Natural Causes –
about euthanasia in a old folks’ home; through a kleptomaniac
housewife, bullied by her mother-in-law in Like Pepper by Jude
Piesse; to Sophie Hannah's endearing tale, Twelve Noon, of an
obsessive pedant, who mistakes a parking sign “…no return for 2 hours”
as a command to stay for exactly that span- not a minute less.
Dave Pescod's
touching Rising
Laughter tells of how a wife manages to finally get
through to her deeply depressed husband, and when the tale parts
company with the reader, you really hope he’s on the up. Or perhaps
your fancy will light upon a daughter’s final revenge on a mother who
always thought mostly of herself? Maybe that’s not to your taste, but
one of the dozen tales in this collection will be, I’m sure.
The book as a
whole gives the reader a crisp selection of tasty morsels – perhaps
revealing viewpoints, which until the reading, were unconsidered. The
quiet and superficially ordinary Of
All Thing, by Anthony Cropper, exposes an unsuspected
distance between two brothers; how easy it is for family to drift
apart. Or how about Pippa Griffin's Next Door, a spicy
story of secondhand holiday sex, and the insurmountable distance which
lies in a double bed?
This is a good
book for traveling with – easily dipped into. The stories are a good
size to gobble down either one at a time, or in twos or more. These
twelve authors are certainly names to watch for in the future - perhaps
with their own collections. Bonne
Route is a stylishly presented collection of short
stories. Buy yourself a copy before traveling – and if you travel with
a partner – buy them one too!
Avis Hickman-Gibb lives in
rural Suffolk, England. She gained a BSc. in Environmental Chemistry
more years ago than she cares to admit, and worked in the fledgling
computer industry whilst still a babe-in-arms.
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Publisher: Route
Publication
Date:
Feb 2008
Paperback/Hardback?
Paperback
First anthology?: No, the 19th
Editor:
Ian Daley
Authors: Dave Pescod, Carla Gericke, Pippa
Griffin,
Wayne Price, Anthony Cropper, M Y Alam,
Alexis Clements, Sophie
Hannah, Paula Rawsthorne,
Michael Nath, Jude Peisse, Les Lloyd
Buy this book (used or
new) from:
The
Publisher's Website: Route
AbeBooks
Amazon
And...don't
forget your local booksellers and independent book shops! Visit IndieBound.org to find an independent bookstore near
you in the US.
If
you liked this book you might also like....
Any of the previous
Route
anthologies
Sophie Hannah "The
Fantastic Book of Everybody's Secrets"
What
other reviewers thought:
The Crack
Magazine
GoodReads
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