Paperback £8.99, Vintage, out now
I don’t often feel like reading short stories, but this collection by one of my favourite novelists makes for a swift and pleasurable read. The stories are diverse but this manages not to jar, which is especially impressive given their variety.
Tolstoy is dying in a Russian stationmaster’s house – but what do their respective wives think about this? In my favourite story, A View of Lake Superior in the Fall, an American couple run away from their troublesome adult daughter to a winter cabin by a lake.
The best first line in the collection in my view belongs to The Housekeeper: “Everybody believes that I am an invented person: Mrs Danvers”. This is a strong and engagingly written selection. Recommended.
Review by Bethan
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