Learning by Heart: Short Stories

by Margot Livesey

A collection of short stories explores the experiences of characters including an obituary writer, two aged sisters, a married couple, and an unloving stepmother

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Margot grew up in a boys' private school in the Scottish Highlands where her father taught, and her mother, Eva, was the school nurse. After taking a B.A. in English and philosophy at the University of York in England she spent most of her twenties working in restaurants and learning to write. Her first book, a collection of stories called Learning By Heart, was published in Canada in 1986. Since then Margot has published nine novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Street, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Mercury and The Boy in the Field. She has also published The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing. Her tenth novel, The Road from Belhaven, will be published by Knopf in February, 2024.

Margot has taught at Boston University, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon, Cleveland State, Emerson College, Tufts University, the University of California at Irvine, the Warren Wilson College MFA program for writers, and Williams College. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the Guggenheim Foundation, the N.E.A., the Massachusetts Artists' Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Margot currently teaches at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Reviews

[Sydney]

In preparation for reading Margot Livesey's newest (Mercury), I decided to re-read this collection of short stories. I still love them. My favorites are "The Acrobat's Grave" for the description of the protagonist walking through the old home, and "Learning by Heart" for the tension between the sisters — and the description of their childhood. Livesey just gets inside women's hearts and understands bravery. And mothers — she really writes the lives of nurturers beautifully. Love this book.

[Jennifer Debruler]

I love Margot Livesey's writing and I love short stories, so this was a wonderful quick read.