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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

Love and loss: Empire of Wild, The Exile and the Mapmaker & Suiza

12/7/2021

10 Comments

 
Three short reviews of novels on the theme of love and loss: the first, set in Canada, about a woman whose husband disappears and turns up a year later with a new identity; the second, set in France, is about a man who yearns to be reunited with the lover from his youth before he loses himself to dementia; the third, a translated novel set in Spain, is about the tender relationship that develops between two brutalised people.

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Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

Eleven long months have passed since Joan’s husband, Victor, disappeared after an argument. So when she finds him with a new identity as an evangelical preacher, she’s confused. Why doesn’t he recognise her? How has his transformation come about?
 
The blurb – of which this is a précis – intrigued me. Especially when I read that the novel was inspired by traditional Metis legend. A novel, I hoped, to educate and entertain. Alas, even as a metaphor for the colonisation of the minds and bodies of indigenous people, I couldn’t take the rogarou seriously. It’s too close to a werewolf for me.
 
Thanks, and apologies, to publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson for my review copy. A highly praised novel – one of the most anticipated books of the year for several magazines – that didn’t work for me.


The Exile and the Mapmaker by Emma Musty

Widower Theo is losing the mental maps that tie him to reality. Nebay has fled his native Eritrea and is now unmapped and undocumented in Paris, hoping to reach his sister in the UK. Elise, Theo’s estranged daughter, fears her heart’s desires in case they leave her, like her mother, pinned to someone else’s map.
 
When Theo’s increasing fragility forces Elise to move back to her childhood home, Nebay’s arrival as a daytime carer saves her sanity, and her job. But there’s a huge conflict between her role in the UK Borders Agency and the man she relies on at home. Then there’s her father’s obsession with a woman in a photo; it’s not Elise’s mother, so who is she?
 
This is a heartfelt debut about the cruelties of dementia and Britain’s response to refugees, founded in the author’s activism in Calais and Athens. It’s also about love and loss and the enduring impact of trauma, from which I learnt a little more about Algeria’s tangled history with colonial France. Thanks to publishers Legend Press for my review copy.


Suiza by Bénédicte Belpois translated by Alison Anderson

Tomas, a middle-aged widower and taciturn Galician farmer, has just been diagnosed with lung cancer when he spots Suiza working in the local bar. A beautiful foreigner who can’t speak Spanish, everyone assumes she’s stupid. Her educational and emotional development having been neglected, she thinks so too.
 
Tomas’ lust gets the better of him, as he drags her from the bar and rapes her. Then he takes her home.
 
Unlikely as it sounds, tenderness develops between the two damaged people, each somehow compensating for the other’s deficiencies. But as their relationship becomes respected within the community, Tomas’ health deteriorates. How will the fragile Suiza manage if he dies?
 
It’s hard to elicit sympathy for a rapist, yet somehow Bénédicte Belpois achieves this in her debut novel. The voice helps – I loved it from the beginning – and the author’s deep compassion for her characters, however deeply flawed. Although I’m sure I’d have little sympathy for Tomas if I met him, this unusual and poignant novel is a contender for my favourite reads of the year. Thanks to publishers Europa editions for my review copy.
 
My own second novel is also about a man whose actions are repulsive; unfortunately, Steve gets more reprehensible – albeit perhaps more interesting – as the novel develops. Click on the image below to find out more.

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I’ve continued the theme of love and loss into my 99-word story in response to this week’s flash fiction challenge prompt: feathers. Let me know what you think.

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Love tokens

She didn’t need to go elsewhere to meet him. He was threaded through the fabric of their home. His hatred of spaghetti in the kitchen. His favourite artist down the hall.

She found mementos everywhere. Gifts bestowed to cheer her day. Chocolate in the cutlery drawer. Photos in the airing cupboard. A curled feather where she laid her head to sleep.

Every Valentine’s, a peacock plume. Sufficient now to clothe a taxidermy bird.

She stores these new ones, small and grey, with her jewellery.  She doesn’t grasp her pillow’s leaking stuffing. She needs his greetings from beyond the grave.
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
Norah Colvin
14/7/2021 12:32:25 pm

Thanks for your reviews, Anne. I like the title 'The Exile and the Mapmaker' but won't add these to my list at the moment - too many others to read first.
I was intrigued by your flash. I wasn't sure if it was a happy or not relationship. Maybe it was complex, like many.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
14/7/2021 04:28:54 pm

I agree about that title. Interesting that the relationship comes across as ambiguous in the flash. I'd assumed it was happy, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Reply
Norah Colvin
15/8/2021 05:22:47 am

Perhaps it was how I was feeling when I read it more than your writing.

Anne Goodwin
19/8/2021 05:55:59 pm

Yes, we can read differently depending on our mood.

D. Avery link
14/7/2021 07:28:20 pm

Your flash definitely hits the love and loss mark. I get that she is pining. If there's any ambiguity it's whether or not she realizes her pillow leaks, but that is an intriguing take either way.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
20/7/2021 02:13:56 pm

That's how I see her. Thanks D.

Reply
Charli MIlls
15/7/2021 06:02:12 am

Your reviews remind me that the power of voice in a novel can tackle unlikely topics and characters, Anne, whereas metaphors for social issues can feel contrived as literary devises. Your flash hits the mark for love and loss and yet. I also wondered if the relationship had been happy. The reminders could also be claustrophobic.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
20/7/2021 02:16:35 pm

Yes, control from beyond the grave can be too much.
I think those metaphors can work, but this didn't for me, and I don't know even if it was intended as such.

Reply
Rebecca Glaessner link
16/7/2021 03:16:46 am

Your flash portrays love and loss beautifully, while still leaving the reader space to contemplate and fill in the gaps their own way. Also, I love that your reviews are short and to the point. It gives me a view into literature I wouldn't often read, and the potential to find new works to experience.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
20/7/2021 02:19:31 pm

I'm glad you see the reviews that way, Rebecca. I often feel guilty when I keep them short, but sometimes I don't have much to say.

Reply



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