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A.L.Kennedy: Books & Reviews


This section was originally designed to let readers get an idea of what A.L. Kennedy’s books are like and what the critical reception for them has been. As time has gone by – and journalistic standards have become perhaps a little more wibbly – this section seemed to turn into a Wall of Shame. Or, as we like to see it, an opportunity for reviewers to sample the joy which is being reviewed for their very own personal selves.

A.L. Kennedy is now translated into more than a dozen languages, but we’re sorry that we can’t quite keep up with foreign language reviews.

Lack of time – and a certain distaste for the media’s self-obsession - meant that this section closed for a while on the old website. After the deluge of coverage in response to the Costa Prize win and special pleading from Tim Martin in The Telegraph – his pleading and specialness are both here, if you want a gander http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3670427/Endpaper.html - we are up and running again. Who knew that being bitch-slapped in a virtual manner would be such a turn on for so many typists. Well, we aim to please… or something.

First, you’ll find book reviews and then – always my favourite, in the way that eating uranium while fondling Jeremy Clarkson would be my favourite - reviews of the author.



What Becomes

cover.jpgHere is the shiny new cover for "What Becomes" - image created by the excellent gentleman and photographer, Kevin Low. You may wish to order a copy from the splendid WORDPOWER bookshop. Or feel free to make your own arrangements for purchase and delighted posession. Reviews have been good - although you know how seriously we take them - and will be posted soon elsewhere. Below you can read an extract of the cover blurb, kindly provided by Jonathan Cape.

"Always attuned to the moment of epiphany, these twelve stories are profound, intimate observations of men and women whose lives ache with possibility - each story a dramatisation of the instant in a life that exposes it all; love and the lack of love, hope and the lack of hope. 

These men and women are perfectly ordinary people - whose marriages founder, who sit on their own in a cinema watching a film with no soundtrack; whos risk sex in a hotel with an anonymous stranger. They conceal tenderness and disappointment, vulnerability and longing, griefs and wonders...

A.L.Kennedy's fifth remarkable collection of short stories shows us exactly what becomes of the broken-hearted. She reveals the sadness, violence, hurt and terror, but also the redemption of love - and she does so with the enormous human compassion, wild leaps of humour, and the brilliantly orginal linguistic skill that distinguishes her as one of Britain's finest writers." 

Listen to a reading of one of the stories given at the 2008 Edinburgh International Book Festival here>>. Recording courtesy of the fine folks at the EIBF.

 

 

Day

day.jpgI’m still not listing reviews for DAY – It won a Saltire Award, the Costa Prize, the Eifel Literaturpreis, the Austrian State Prize For International Literature and helped me get a Lannan Award – so bits of it are probably quite good, although some people have trouble with the first 50 pages or so.  Through the wonders of the Interweb, you can hear me reading from Day and answering questions about it, courtesy of the fine people at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and Ramona Koval of the ABC. So then you can make up your own mind.

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So I Am Glad

soiam.jpg

Jennifer M. Wilson has decided to become a voice. A professional enunciator, an announcer, a voice-over artist, she has retreated into a world of words.

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On Bullfighting

bullfight.jpgThis book will be about people who risk death for a living. Whatever you or I think of how and why they do this, they are making that commitment every working day- a commitment which I am pointing out I know that I can't equal...

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Paradise

Paradise by A L KennedyHannah Luckraft knows the taste of paradise. It’s hidden in the peace of open country, it’s sweet on her lover’s skin, it flavours every drink she’s ever taken, but it never seems to stay.

Almost forty and with nothing to show for it, even Hannah is starting to notice that her lifestyle is not entirely sustainable: 

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Indelible Acts

indelible.jpgThe twelve stories in Indelible Acts are variations on a theme of longing - the unassuagable human need for contact, for completion, for that most fugitive gift of all:

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Everything You Need

Everything You Need by A L KennedyNathan Staples is comsumed by loathing and love in equal measures.He is sustained only by his passionate devotion to his estranged wife, Maura, and their teenage daughter, Mary -

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Original Bliss

Original Bliss by A L KennedyThe stories in Original Bliss are concerned, appropriately, with the complexities of sex and the lack of it. Whether in Copenhagen or New York City, in the close confines of a TV

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Looking for the Possible Dance

Looking for the Possible Dance by A L KennedyMary Margaret Hamilton was educated in Scotland. She was born there too. These may not have been the best possible options, but they were the only ones on offer at the time.  Although her father did his best,

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Night Geometry & the Garscadden Trains

Night Geometry & the Garscadden Trains by A L KennedyA.L.Kennedy's first collection of short stories shows a talented individual at work.

Her characters are often alone and sometimes lonely as they ponder the mysteries of sex,

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Now That You're Back

Now That You're Back by A L KennedyTender, precise, comic and chilling by turn, the stories in A.L.Kennedy's new collection confirm her reputation as one of the most exciting new writers to have appeared in the last decade.

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