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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.

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Losing it: Ten Days & Gratitude

31/1/2021

2 Comments

 
Wolf has lost his wife and, if he doesn’t get his act together, he might lose his daughter, at exactly the moment he needs her most. Michka is losing her words, but is desperate to use those remaining to express her gratitude to a couple she lost touch with in childhood, even though they saved her life. Although I’ve posted a few reviews already this year, these are the first of fiction published in 2021.

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Ten Days by Austin Duffy


There’s a tension between Wolf and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Ruth, as they arrive in New York to spend time with relatives during the ten holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Is it because they’ve come to scatter Miriam’s ashes and are grieving the loss of a mother and wife? Or because the in-laws have never approved of Miriam’s marrying outside the faith? Is it because Ruth is a typical teenager or that Wolf had little contact with her in the seven years he and Miriam were estranged?
 
All of those are certainly factors, plus that Wolf has made plans for his daughter’s future without consulting her. But there’s a bigger secret, which becomes apparent to the reader as the novel progresses, and to the family as the already unwelcome guest at the dinner table irritates them more and more.
 
This is the heart of the novel, but I won’t disclose the issue here as it isn’t mentioned in the blurb. I suppose to give readers the satisfaction of its gradual discovery, and the reveal is beautifully handled, but it does make it hard to review. Suffice to say that it reminded me of Michael Ignatieff’s tender novel Scar Tissue, and (like my own novel, Sugar and Snails) it turns out to be much more than it first seems.
 
More poignant. More special. Although I did have slight reservations about the setup: obviously as the father, Wolf should take parental responsibility for Ruth, yet I wondered how much Miriam, who knew she was dying, had considered what their daughter actually wanted. Also there’s a psychiatrist who breaks confidentiality at a dinner party in a manner I hope wouldn’t happen in real life. (Incidentally, Wolf is the confidant, not the patient!) Published in the UK next month by Granta books (and probably, because of the Americanisms, although the author’s Irish, in the US also) – thanks to them for my review copy.
 
Subscribers to my newsletter can read Sugar and Snails for free throughout February. Click on the image to reserve your copy.


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Gratitude by Delphine de Vigan translated by George Miller

“What still surprises me …” says Jérôme, a speech therapist working in a care home, “is how long childhood pain lasts.” If that surprises you, you might be this novella’s ideal reader. It doesn’t surprise me, however, so I’m probably not!
 
Michka wants to express her gratitude to a couple who helped her in childhood, before she runs out of words. She’s paid the favour forwards, however, by helping Maria, a neglected child in the apartment above hers. Now Maria’s grown-up, she’s helping Michka, but it’s not quite enough. Fortunately, Jérôme’s willing to blur therapeutic boundaries and plug the gap.
 
The exact nature of Michka’s debt is easy to envisage, and not much is added when it’s finally revealed. Similarly, a thread about Jérôme’s unresolved issues with his father isn’t developed and, because the plot relies heavily on dialogue, there’s little emotional resonance. Although it doesn’t say so explicitly, extrapolating from other data, Michka must be in her mid-70s at most, which is tragically young to be losing the power of communication.
 
Still, it was good to meet my first fictional speech therapist and I thought the translator must’ve had fun – or a headache-inducing challenge – rendering Michka’s aphasia into English from the French. Gratitude to publishers Bloomsbury for my review copy.
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.
2 Comments
Norah Colvin
2/2/2021 10:19:18 am

I think I'd read Ten Days before Gratitude, Anne, though both sound quite interesting. Like you, I'm not surprised how long childhood pain remains.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
5/2/2021 04:18:20 pm

Ten Days really is a lovely novel, although I have read other reviews of Gratitude which are much more positive than mine. I'm feeling a bit guilty/embarrassed as I realised after I had requested the review copy that I had read one of this author's novels before and could have predicted that I wouldn't be smitten.

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