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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

In the public eye: Trust & Blue Skinned Gods

28/10/2021

10 Comments

 
Here we have two novels about (celebrity, and the darker side of men whose virtue is part of their fame. In the first, translated from the Italian and set in Rome, an author, teacher and public intellectual can never completely relax into his positive reputation for fear a secret he shared with a former lover will be revealed. In the second, set in New York and rural Tamil Nadu, a young man brought up to believe he’s a living god has to decide whether to continue in the role his father and his followers have given him when he discovers the truth about himself.

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Trust by Domenico Starnone translated by Jhumpa Lahiri

Pietro is a teacher who has an affair with Teresa, a former pupil, although he’s clearly done something worse, as the lovers pledge their union by confessing their most shameful secret to each other. Shortly afterwards, they separate.
 
We follow Pietro through marriage to a fellow teacher, literary celebrity and fatherhood. Yet, across the years, he’s still haunted by Teresa, and what she knows about him. Her knowledge seems to serve as his conscience, making him a better person. But it comes with a cost in the form of a bucketload of anxiety.
 
I wondered about the author’s decision to withhold the secret from the reader. Perhaps he felt it would be a distraction from the theme of the tensions between our public persona and private selves. But it left me feeling there wasn’t enough material for a novel and it would have been more successful as a short story.
 
Having enjoyed a couple of Domenico Starnone’s previous novels translated into English – firstly Trick and then Ties, which was one of my favourite reads of 2020 – I was a little disappointed in Trust. Thanks nevertheless to publishers, Europa Editions, for my review copy.


Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu

Kalki lives with his parents, his cousin, Lakshman, and Lakshman’s parents on an isolated ashram in Tamil Nadu. While the village boys play cricket, Kalki prays over the pilgrims who have come to him for healing. As a living god, and the blue-skinned tenth atavar of Vishnu, he can’t afford to neglect his devotees.
 
The text that prophesied his birth and life predicts he’ll be tested three times on his tenth birthday, and his father will do whatever it takes to ensure he proves his divinity. Kalki, although anxious about the responsibility, will do whatever it takes to make his father proud.
 
As his fame grows, foreigners and rich Indians visit the ashram, opening Kalki’s eyes to other possibilities, other worlds. Yet, with his mother’s emotional withdrawal, and Lakshman and his parents’ emigration to America, Kalki feels increasingly alone. But it’s not until his early twenties, when he and his father embark on his long-anticipated world tour, that Kalki truly questions everything he’s been taught.
 
I enjoyed this unusual coming-of-age story about a young man’s struggle to separate from a father who has sacrificed his son to fulfil his own warped dreams. Knowing a little Hindu scripture, I loved the references to stories I recognised and, having stayed in an Indian ashram as well as in a village in rural Tamil Nadu, the setting resonated for me. But the conflicts for the ‘special’ child created to satisfy his parents cut across continents and cultures. Anyone who’s ever been disillusioned – and haven’t we all? – should enjoy this book. Thanks to publishers Legend Press for my advance proof copy.
 
My debut novel, Sugar and Snails, is also about a character with a secret, although Diana’s public persona is limited to her university students and colleagues. Click on the image below to learn more.
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My next novel is about a pseudo-celebrity, along with other characters hiding secrets in the shadows. I’m now seeking beta readers to help improve it; if you’re interested, and are comfortable reading and commenting online, click here:

Yes, I’d like to help make The Age of Staggered Breathing better

Meanwhile, I continue attention seeking for my latest novel, Matilda Windsor is Coming Home. Here’s a recent podcast recorded with Stuart Wakefield and the link to reviews from Matty’s blog tour earlier this month to mark World Mental Health Day.
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Awaiting this week’s flash fiction challenge, I fancied writing about the queen’s handbag. There can’t be a bigger celebrity than Her Maj. Alas, I couldn’t fit it to the prompt. Let’s face it, I couldn’t understand the prompt.

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But I did my research, and discovered a candy kitchen is a sweet shop where the product is made on the premises. In composing my 99-word story around geographical and cultural differences in the use of the English language, and managed to fit in two celebrities. Unfortunately, both William Wordsworth and Sarah Nelson are long dead.
Divided by a common language

People often asked for directions to Wordsworth’s grave, but this was a first.
“There’s a soup kitchen in Barrow.” Where tourists never go.

“Not soup. Candy!”

“What kind of candy where you were after?” Was he blind? Her shelves heaved with glass jars: aniseed balls; sherbet lemons; sarsaparilla drops. Stacks of Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake.

“It’s made on the premises.”

“There’s a chocolatier in Orton.” Miles away.

“Is it the famous one? Established in 1854?”

She sent him to Sarah Nelson’s. Grasmere gingerbread was renowned the world over. Neither bread, cake, nor biscuit. Call it candy if you will.
 
 
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
10 Comments
Charli Mills
30/10/2021 09:34:21 pm

A couple of interesting reviews, Anne. I appreciate the connections across cultures and then moved on to confusing language between them. I'm still riddling out your clever flash!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
31/10/2021 01:49:16 pm

Thanks, Charli, I've learnt a lot about our similarities and differences via your ranch

Reply
D. Avery link
1/11/2021 12:49:58 am

Ha! I showed up at the Ranch just in time for the famous "slag" prompt back in '17. Could see Shorty blush all the way from New England, where we have different words than the midwest for many things. Soda vs pop, subs vs grinders vs hoagies...
Candy kitchen put me in mind of a small town sweet shop or a New England coastal town saltwater taffy shop and the tourists that would go there. Of course I did not go there for my response. I enjoyed your flash. So exotic.

Anne Goodwin
2/11/2021 02:24:41 pm

So many linguistic differences across continents, I hadn't thought so much about different meanings within the US. But why not? We can confuse each other so easily here and we're a much smaller country. One of my favourites was moving 150 miles to find 'tab' no longer meant 'cigarette' but 'ear'. How? Why? And it was 'slag' that got you addicted to the Ranch!

I'll take exotic, given that my flash is set east of you ;-)

Norah Colvin
31/10/2021 10:33:59 am

Looks like I'm learning new things from both you and Charli - a candy kitchen and Sarah Nelson and her gingerbread invention. Once I was able to fill in those gaps (thank goodness for Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn, how ignorant we'd be without them) I was able to decipher your flash - clever and well done.
Both books you reviewed sound intriguing. I think I'd like to know the secret in Trust - makes me think the author didn't know what it was either. I was interested to see that each of the three novels had one-word titles beginning with 'T'.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
31/10/2021 01:55:46 pm

Well, Norah, I had to look up Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn! Because we have our home-grown inventor of the world wide web in Tim Berners-Lee, and because I don't really understand the various contributions, or have been too lazy to delve into it, I didn't know about these two. But yes, they make much of life so much easier.

I'm not sure what I think of those triple T titles, I suppose it's a brand.

Reply
Norah Colvin
4/11/2021 11:00:25 am

Hi Anne, I wondered if you had reviewed Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Not sure if I got that from you or not. Tried doing a search as you previously suggested but came up blank.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
4/11/2021 02:03:00 pm

I hadn't heard of it, looked it up and slightly put off that it's a bestseller. Presuming you've read it? What did you think?

And sorry about the search thingy. The link to my list of reviews used to be in the header, but it had to move to make way for my own books! But you've reminded me I've been meaning to tidy up the blog sidebar for ages. I've added an easier to find link to the reviews, but I fear I've simply added to the clutter.

Norah Colvin
7/11/2021 12:24:43 pm

I didn't realise you had links to your reviews, Anne. You didn't last time I asked, which is some time ago. It's a great feature. I'm sorry I hadn't noticed it before.
I can't remember who recommended Sarah's Key then. Sometimes I write it on my list. This time I didn't.
I listened to the book. The narrator annoyed me, putting on voices for different characters. I found the story engaging enough to put with that though. I did enjoy it and didn't realise it was a bestseller. I wasn't sure if the first person narrator (not the audio narrator mentioned before) was complex or inconsistent. Unlike Matilda Windsor is Coming Home, it all tied in a bit too neatly, but it was a great window upon a part of history of which I was ignorant, just as the characters were before the book began.

Anne Goodwin
8/11/2021 06:49:26 pm

I've had it for a while, but then we've both been blogging for a while before that! It would be too mcuh work to start a list from scratch now.

It's good to learn from fiction but the neatly tied up ending wouldn't work for me.




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