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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

No prizes for guessing why I’ve paired The Slaughterman’s Daughter with The Island Child

4/2/2020

7 Comments

 
That’s right, both novels are about daughters: the first a debut about the claustrophobic bond between mothers and daughters exacerbated by the claustrophobic island setting; the second a translation from Hebrew set in late 19th-century Russia about the consequences of a father teaching his younger daughter his unusual trade. Of course there might be other connections but, as you’ll see if you read to the end, right now, I’ve got fictional daughters on the brain.
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The Island Child by Molly Aitken

Growing up on an island off Galway that women rarely left, a girl’s life was inevitably restricted. Confined to a three-room house with an unloving mother, with only two years of uninspiring schooling, Oona’s options are more limited than most. But that doesn’t stop her dreaming. As soon as she’s old enough, she’ll leave.
 
And leave she does, but freedom comes with a heavy price. For years, she has no contact with her family, not even her gentle brother Enda, the kindest of the lot. Nor can she escape the island that lives on inside her and the traumatic event of the night before she left. All too soon, she’s a mother herself, without the inner resources to give her daughter love she was denied.
 
Joyce, now nineteen, has discovered a secret Oona never meant to share. Her daughter’s disappearance drags her back to her native land. Will she find forgiveness, consolation, a second chance?
 
Debut novelist’s Molly Aitken’s prose is stylish, and Oona’s first impressions of the world beyond her homeland are beautifully evoked. But, overall, the story and characters didn’t engage me as much as I’d hoped. Part of the reason might have been that I couldn’t work out when it was set until quite close to the end. It might also have been due to picking it up too soon after The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, another story of claustrophobic island life. Thanks to Canongate for my review copy.


The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits translated by Orr Sharf

Missing husbands are not unusual in 1890s Poland and when Mende Speismann’s disappears, she relishes the quiet. But her sister, Fanny Keismann, is appalled and, although devoted wives and mothers never go missing, she sets off to Minsk to find him and restore Mende’s good name.
 
Fanny is aided and abetted in her quest in a pair of former soldiers, abducted as children, and forced to renounce their Jewish faith. Along with a hapless Cantor, they’re soon wanted for murder and pursued by almost the entire Russian army and the secret police. No-one imagines Fanny could be implicated, but she does possess an unusual skill learned from her father, owner of Grodno’s most successful abattoir.
 
This epic 500 page historical adventure story sparkles with tension and humour as it tracks Jewish culture and anti-Semitism within the Russian Empire. With a large cast of characters, most with their own intriguing back story, and multiple twists and turns, it’s a hard novel to categorise. For me, the dominant theme is obedience versus initiative, as played out in religion, marriage, management and the military; most of all, it’s an entertaining read. Thanks to publishers MacLehose for my review copy.
 
Set a little later and farther across to the east, as soon as Radzetsky cropped up as a character, I was reminded of another splendid novel in similar territory, The Radzetsky March.
 
There’s no overlap between my own fictional daughters and either islands or Russia, but the five stories in my freshly-minted e-book explore the role and relationships in multiple ways. You can read them for free by registering for my email newsletter: simply click on the image below!


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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.
7 Comments
Norah Colvin
5/2/2020 11:33:26 am

Thanks for your ebook, Anne. I'm looking forward to exploring it.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
6/2/2020 01:34:07 pm

Hope you enjoy it, Norah.

Reply
Norah Colvin
9/2/2020 10:23:00 am

I think I've read 5 stories so far, Anne, one of which was totally new to me - Mummy and Me - and, like all the others, thoroughly enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. It's that sweet sorrow that you are so good at.

Norah Colvin
11/2/2020 09:39:20 am

Finished it last night, Anne. I didn't realise I had only flash fiction and extracts to go. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. While some (most of the stories) were familiar to me, I never mind reading your stories again. I'm thrilled to see the steps you are taking to move forward with marketing. Well done. I appreciate your generosity in sharing this book free. It's a great way for readers to get to know your writing.

Anne Goodwin
11/2/2020 06:45:51 pm

Glad you enjoyed them, Norah, and that at least one was new to you! I don't think those 5 FFs at the end are anywhere near my best but they had to fit the theme.
I'm hoping a freebie will bring me more readers -- let's see!

Norah Colvin
16/2/2020 11:00:35 am

I hope so too, Anne. I'll be interested to hear how you go. :)

Anne Goodwin
16/2/2020 04:25:53 pm

A handful already, must be my enticing tweets!




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    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
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    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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