The Beautiful Indifference

by Sarah Hall

From Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author Sarah Hall comes a collection of unique and disturbing short fiction hailed as a sensation by UK reviewers

The serenity of a Finnish lake turns sinister when a woman's lover does not come back from his swim . . . A bored London housewife discovers a secret erotic club . . . A shy, bookish girl develops an unlikely friendship with the schoolyard bully and her wild, horsey family . . . After fighting with her boyfriend, a woman goes for a night walk on a remote tropical beach with dark, unexpected consequences.

Sarah Hall has been hailed as "one of the most significant and exciting of Britain's young novelists" (The Guardian). Now, in this collection of seven pieces of short fiction, published in England to phenomenal praise, she is at her best: seven pieces of uniquely talented prose telling stories as wholly absorbing as they are ambitious and accessible.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Anthologies, 21st Century

187 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Sarah Hall took a degree in English and Art History at Aberystwyth University, and began to take writing seriously from the age of twenty, first as a poet, several of her poems appearing in poetry magazines, then as a fiction-writer. She took an M Litt in Creative Writing at St Andrew's University and stayed on for a year afterwards to teach on the undergraduate Creative Writing programme.

Her first novel, Haweswater, was published in 2002. It is set in the 1930s, focuses on one family - the Lightburns - and is a rural tragedy about the disintegration of a community of Cumbrian hill-framers, due to the building of a reservoir. It won several awards, including the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best First Book).

Sarah Hall currently lives in North Carolina. Her second book, The Electric Michelangelo (2004), set in the turn-of-the-century seaside resorts of Morecambe Bay and Coney Island, was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book).

The Carhullan Army (2007), won the 2007 John Llewellyn-Rhys Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the 2008 Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction.

Her latest novel is How to Paint a Dead Man (2009).

Reviews

[christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like my lit a little mucky. I like to wince, look away from a page, close an eye and sneak a peek. I like it when pretty is hip-checked, when a scene gets manure bombed and when a character has a phlegmy cough. I like real, I like raw, I like dirt under fingernails, arm pit hair that can be braided and toenails that clack against a wood floor.

And now, because of all of that, I like Sarah Hall.

She’s not necessarily messy-messy. She’s not like a Japanese horror novelist or anything. But she has this way of taking a story, stripping it down to it’s blotchy, puckered skin and making it stand under harsh lighting. Her short story collection “The Beautiful Indifference” is a seven-piece set of stories that include horse torture, dead insects, a white dog with a bloodied muzzle and a bored housewife who seeks the kind of anonymous and strong lover who leaves bruises near her hip bones.

In “Butcher’s Perfume,” a woman considers her friendship with a local ruffian who is a mix of new money and wild-child blood; In the title story, a woman has bucked the trend of her friends and has taken a young lover and they go at each other like feral cats. No one thinks this is a good idea, but she’s not really in a place to consider the long term. In “Bees,” the protagonist is starting a new life in a big city after splitting with her partner, though she’s not sure it’s going to take.

“Your heart might not have travelled well, closed up in its cavity, quivering and gnawing at the bars of your ribcage during the commute.”

Then there is the garden in her new home, a sort of sanctuary filled with the husks of dead bees, which Hall describes as “Stiff, fossil-looking things. Black-capped, like aristocrats at a funeral, their antennae folded, with mortuary formality, across their eyes.” In “The Agency,” a woman has a nice home life and a new social circle that includes tell-all women who like their wine. One of the women takes her aside and gives her the contact info for a special place that will meet her needs. In “She Murdered Mortal He,” a couple takes a vacation together, gets into a fight, the woman goes for a walk and encounters a white dog with a bloody muzzle. Then things get a little “Twilight Zone”-y. In “The Nightlong River,” a woman makes a special garment for a sick friend and in “Vuotjarvi” a leisurely afternoon swim turns … who knows.

These are not your heartwarming tales with happy endings, unless you like woman ODing on prescription meds or dead lovers on vacation or a man who has potentially drowned in a Finnish lake. And you should. They’re so much better.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this author can write and she can pack a potent voice, a great narrative.
She has written these short stories all with characters who are female and they are told in first person narrative. Visceral and affecting, light and dark, beautiful and ugly, she passes your time bringing voices of various people in society from different walks of life and different pastures. Inner-city to country she tells of their dilemmas their loves and she can write on and and on. A writer I anticipate to deliver quite a good novel in the future all the hallmarks of great writing are in here with memorable characters and emotions. You may disagree but I like it, also to note this is a great collection of literary work that deals with adults, so you will find one or two swear words, women behaving badly and some between the sheets description.

Excerpt

"During the day you go into the city because it's a place you're supposed to go into, now that you're a resident. You encourage yourself to learn bus routes, find groceries, independent cafes. You go to galleries and shopping districts. You share the pavement, walk with or against the crowd. Sirens. Traffic. Planes. There is such different choreography from that which you are used to, the slow machinery in the black fields, livestock cropping the tufts, your once vernacular scenery. You've some money and a credit card that has not been stopped. Soon you'll find employment, probably quite menial; you're not highly qualified, but for now you're acquainting yourself with London, distracting yourself from time before. It is a faceted city: ornate, sooty, modern. You aren't afraid of it. You note things, place details on a cerebral shelf. You memories noises, chimes, electrical thrums, the euphonic character of the place. And smells: the stale pavement, body odours, doorstep musk, green ponds. There are underground winds, motion sensations, beeps commands. Your head has begun to fill with urban miscellanea, civic clutter, like keen junk."

Review also @ http://more2read.com/review/the-beautiful-indifference-stories-by-sarah-hall/

[Antonomasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.5] Sarah Hall is a sorceror when describing the life and land of her native Cumbria. I am there; I can feel the biting breeze whipping hair into my eyes.
Her descriptive powers are still pretty strong in other places but not so great that I didn't long for some humour and a sense of the ridiculous that, as in much cold, detached literary fiction are too obviously absent.

The two stories set in Cumbria are unquestionably my favourites. 'Butcher's Perfume' is a rollicking start, a story of a teenage female friendship between the narrator and a scion of a hard gypsy family grown nouveau-riche on horse-racing, who rule the town, gutter and courtyards both. They are exactly unusual enough to make you feel no doubt that they really exist. It was a vivid reminder of how the bit between Yorkshire and Scotland always felt to me like a different remote country, uncouth as its strange-shaped vowels; further north than The North. (These lasses like it there though; I just felt marooned.)
Another female friendship in 'The Nightlong River'. Only as a reader can you work out that hundreds of miles away the Twenties were starting to roar. Aside from mention of the Great War and the escaped mink crucial to the story, these people could have been hundreds of years earlier. (And such is the way the narrator speaks of tragic Magda I wonder if their relationship would have been different had they known of Vita and Virgina and Raclyffe Hall.)

I had high hopes for the final 'Vuotjärvi', that Hall would conjure the Finnish landscape as well as the Cumbrian; sadly not. It's certainly not bad but as a tourist she is only on acquaintance terms with the genius loci. As I read The Kalevala a few weeks ago, there was a lot to live up to. Most of it was another chilly, serious relationship story like the rest of the collection.

The sort that starts in the middle and delineates emotions and moments frozen in ice, waiting for ages and pages to reveal details that if I'd heard them at the beginning would have made a more old fashioned but warmer and friendlier story that I may have liked more. Hall certainly is a very good writer and a good few notches above many exponents of litfic in her descriptive powers, but most of these stories seem to demand moments of satire, sarcasm and absurdity which are just not there. There are times when characters might even be having fun but it never feels like it.

Nonetheless I think I'm still really looking forward to her forthcoming book The Hunting School if it's the one about the reintroduction of wolves previewed in Granta.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A copy of The Beautiful Indifference was provided to me by Harper Perennial/Edelweiss for review purposes.

'A Beautiful Indifference' is a collection of seven short stories that had been previously published in various forms and have been honored for awards on their own. The first story, 'Butcher's Perfume' was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2010 and 'Vuotjärvi' was long-listed for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award in 2011.

I've only recently started reading short stories but I decided to pick this one up and was very pleased. Very raw and disconcerting stories with prose that really packs a punch and manages to leave your mind whirling. Each story is very allegorical. Lacking in a true, concrete conclusion and typically left open to interpretation, they all seem to have some deeper meaning that was unattainable for the most part for me. Despite this, these were some of the most gratifying short stories I have ever read. The writing was truly brilliant and left me always wanting more. Sarah Hall is definitely an author worth checking out.

[Niki Vervaeke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik las eerder al de vrouwen van Carhullan van Hall en kreeg dit boek met kortverhalen in het vizier bij ons in de bib.
7 verhalen, het een al mooier dan het ander. Het is wat je mooi noemt natuurlijk. Je wandelt mee in het hoofd van de personages, komt zo ongeveer overal terecht, London, Finland en dit telkens in heel andere situaties.
Mooie beschrijvingen, onverwachte eindes soms. Het bijenverhaal vond ik super, net als dat van de nertsmantel.
Het zijn subtiele verhalen met telkens een soort van gelatenheid erdoor geweven en toch zit er veel emotie in, heel bevreemdend, de titel dekt de lading eigenlijk wel.

Mooi, om langzaam te lezen.

http://www.cuttingedge.nl/boekenstrip...

[Halina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are not really my thing. I'm not one to appreciate plot strands left unresolved, introduced ideas left undeveloped, ambiguous endings where "I" am meant to decide what happened. I don't like short stories. I carried on thinking this until I was about halfway through this collection, by which point the richly detailed, evocative and clear as glass narrative had won me over. The sense of something disturbing just beneath the surface and a malevolence which would never be realised in each story won me over not long after. And now I can't stop thinking about the woman in the boat, the dog on the beach, the man in the barn and the fox in the garden. Stupid short stories.

[sienna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good writing and ideas but it just felt like they never climaxed so it was just disappointing and left me dissatisfied… kinda like having sex with a man

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

showstopping…………….

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good bunch of stories. I think I preferred the ones set in Cumbria (where the author comes from) packed with wonderful dialect with meanings you sometimes have to guess at: 'glisky', anyone? Or 'brant shoulderblades'? Some are more straightforward: 'As warm as sotter loaf', the 'dogs sooling about in the undergrowth'. These (2) stories have energy, warmth and drive - the first story 'Butcher's Perfume' recounts a schoolgirl's friendship with the Slessor family; They came from gypsy stock, scrappies, dog and horse breeders, fire-mongers.. The father, Geordie Slessor, went about town like the next in line for the throne... he was gristle right through to the bone. Despised by all, the narrator is exhilarated by their company, and they are shown in the end to have their own code of honour. OK not the most original storyline, but Hall does it very well. This is her description of a dying horse:
A shaft of sunlight lit the horse’s body. The thing was a mess, shorn of its coat, with sores under its legs and keds crawling all over it. Its ribcage angled up through its flesh like the frame of a boat being dismantled. It had not stood for a long time for its hooves had twisted into thick discoloured spirals, like the nails of a Chinese Emperor.

The other 5 stories, mainly set in London or abroad (on holiday), are cooler but beautifully written and constructed. They are mainly about sex, or relationships coming to an end. She is very good on sex... and relationships coming to an end.

Thumbs up from me.

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection, though tries a bit too hard to be mysterious and deep. The stories are different in plot, but feel to all have a very similar narrator, even though I don't think that's how it's meant to be.

[Gianni · Rating 5 out of 5]

La belle indifférence viene indicata nel manuale diagnostico e statistico dei disturbi mentali, per quel poco che sono riuscito a mettere insieme di comprensibile, come una caratteristica dell’isteria, ovvero l’apparente mancanza di interesse nei confronti dei propri sintomi, la drammaticità del comportamento e gli atteggiamenti istrionici, come quando la protagonista del racconto che dà il titolo alla raccolta immagina ”una conversazione aspra, amare rivelazioni, un’uscita di scena teatrale. Ma sapeva di non essere realmente arrabbiata con lei. Non aveva senso cercare a tutti i costi un motivo per la sua frustrazione. Non era colpa di nessuno. Ogni ritorsione sarebbe stata ingiusta.”
Il distacco emotivo si percepisce in tutte le storie, è un modo per allontanarsi dalla sofferenza, per cogliere una svolta nella vita ed è esplicitato dalle donne protagoniste dei racconti con profonda lucidità, sia che si tratti di violenza fisica, che di sesso sfrenato, di tradimenti o di rancore e che rende le figure maschili quasi di mero contorno, ”le donne riescono a convivere molto meglio con i segreti, non credi? Fu Anthea a rispondere. Sì. E speriamo di restare indecifrabili.”
E distacco emotivo e lucidità si rivelano anche nella bella scrittura come ingredienti capaci di alzare improvvisamente la tensione del racconto, di far passare repentinamente dal quotidiano ordinario al cambiamento improvviso e all’impulso irrefrenabile.

[Bruddenbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been ages since I bought this copy of THE BEAUTIFUL INDIFFERENCE and when I needed a quality literary snack to cleanse my palate after a not-so-enjoyable novel, its hour had finall come. Good choice: this short story collection has clever edges for days; intoxicating, visceral and discomfiting are some of the words one might use to describe it. I enjoyed 5:7 stories, which is a good quota for me.

[Δημήτριος Καραγιάννης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerie, bleak and reminiscent of older times, this collection is guaranteed to prickle the nape of your neck with dread and keep you on edge with every turn of the page. The atmosphere in all these stories is incredibly immersive and originally dark.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goed geschreven verhalen die je misschien aanvankelijk met vragen achterlaten. Lees je echter goed de details, dan is er meer duidelijk dan je denkt.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, pleasant collection of intriguing stories. After ‘The Electric Michelangelo’ and ‘The Carhullan Army’, I count Sarah Hall amongst my favourite of modern British fiction authors. This volume doesn’t quite measure up to the heights of those novels, and in fact I was tempted to write a snarky review along the lines of ‘another book whose title reviews itself’. But that wouldn’t have been quite fair: beautiful as the writing sometimes is, I certainly wasn’t indifferent to it.

Or rather I wasn’t indifferent to most of it. Broadly, the stories here can be divided into two categories: the Fantasies, and the London stories. The Fantasies are set in another place, perhaps the North of England as in ‘Butcher’s Perfume’ or ‘The Nightlong River’, where Hall deploys local idiom to spectacular effect, making old slang fresh by setting it in a context where even the most outlandish phrase becomes a fictional device, a form of analogy. Other stories like ‘She Murdered Mortal He’ are set in a distant place, maybe a holiday destination, where the language is more settled and familiar but the scenes are anything but. Sublimated violence, a landscape turning upon the solipsist: these are familiar themes here.

The stories which didn’t quite work for me are the trio set in or near modern-day London: ‘The Beautiful Indifference’, ‘Bees’, and ‘The Agency’. The most interesting thing about these is that all of them share a sense in which the lead character is a kind of refugee in from some other place, perhaps from that strange old North of the other stories. Sadly, that sense is the most interesting thing about them; perhaps it was only the juxtaposition with other works of a higher standard, but I found them somewhat forgettable, though all possess moments of very fine writing. In particular, ‘The Agency’ is the most disappointing: a fine dramatic set-up goes to waste at a conclusion which is sadly all too predictable. Are we really meant to find it so surprising that a wealthy but unfulfilled upper middle-class woman would visit a classily ambiguous brothel for S&M sex?

One last thing about the cover. Can we stop with the faceless female bodies on the cover of novels by women? Apparently this kind of shot is considered visual shorthand for things like ‘sensitive’ and ‘sexy’ and ‘vaguely literary’, but it bears little or no resemblance to anything which is actually in the book. A passage from the titular story reads:

‘She shut the book. The cover was photographic, part of a female figure, a headless torso and limbs, though the novel itself was about the Second World War. The image was stock, meaningless. Give me a man, she thought. Give me the long cleft in his back.’

This cover is stock, meaningless too. Of course you couldn’t have a semi-naked man on the front without it being sold as something else entirely. But it might be a nice change.

[Dan Purdue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah Hall's writing is clear-eyed and unflincing. She finds beauty in the most unlikely places and draws out the ugliness and decay lurking beneath the surface in all kinds of human relationships. Her prose is unsentimental but sensual, and her descriptions are vivid and often visceral. She writes about people but the animalistic side of human nature is never far away.

There are seven stories in this collection, the first and longest of which is "Butcher's Perfume", a story that was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award in 2010. It's a good introduction to Hall's style, dealing with a young girl who befriends a girl from a well-off family of ex-gypsy stock, who more or less run the Cumbrian town in which she is growing up. When she finds a neglected horse suffering in a rank stable, it is to her friend's brothers she turns, and they dispense summary justice to punish the farmer responsible.

Several of the stories seem to end abruptly, without coming to a particular conclusion. That's not to suggest they aren't draw to a skilful and satisfying end, nor that there's anything obscure about them, just that Hall does not believe in tying up all the dangling threads. There is space to consider the characters and what happens to them beyond the end of the narrative. In "Bees", the mysterious appearance of dead bees in a London garden begins a story of a woman moving down to the City to stay with a friend after leaving her abusive, philandering husband. She tries to adapt, looks for a new job, starts to come to terms with her new circumstances. By the end of the story, the mystery of the bees is solved, but the woman's fate remains uncertain (although it's possible to read the reason for the bees dying as a metaphor for what will become of her).

I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, although Butcher's Perfume, Vuotjarvi, and the unsettling She Murdered Mortal He are probably my favorites. The Agency is perhaps the story I least liked; it just seemed a little slight compared to the others. I would also have liked there to have been a few more stories in the collection - seven just isn't enough!

[Robert Lomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection on seven short stories, each set in a different place, each featuring the viewpoint of a different woman at a key stage of her life, and each conjuring up a different emotion.
The title is taken from the second story which is set in Yorkshire. The twist in the tale (sic) is its unexpected, yet bitter-sweet, ending. Only when you read the last paragraph do you realise the inevitable destination of the story and the real meaning of the title.
I bought this book after hearing it reviewed on the BBC Open Book programme. The discussion of the theme of the book, great issues of life, death and love, caught my attention and I downloaded a sample to my Kindle. The introduction to the first story, set in the moorlands of the Scottish borders brought the landscape and its inhabitants to vivid life on the page. I was hooked and quickly downloaded the whole book.
Together the stories create a patchwork of people and places, all living in their own worlds yet all concerned with the basic questions of living, loving and dying. This little book is a most enjoyable trip into the mind of woman writer who will stir your deepest feelings if you dare to read her.

[Blake Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and sad. I love her care with word choice, her crafting of stunning descriptions that blend senses, and the deep rooting in environment and locale. These women are their environments, in a way that is neither good nor bad but is so real and a treat to read. I felt like every adult character was a northern, passively suicidal, repressed bisexual woman, and that repetition was both the collection's strength and its weakness. My favorites were the two about teenagers, and I do think one of her strengths is writing from a uniquely limited point of view, like a child's. The way she writes anxiety and how it affects a character's perception, even if she's self-aware about it also stood out to me. Really, a very good collection. I would have been obsessed with the title story if I had somehow read this when I was younger.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was actually very skeptical when I started this book (I've never really been into short stories), but within seconds I was hooked. These stories are exceptional. They aren't for everybody - nothing much happens, in the sense that there aren't any grand story arcs, but each story is so atmospheric and evocative that I didn't much mind. The writing alternates between quietly despairing and beautifully lush, with a distinct dark undercurrent to it, something raw and sexually charged. The moment I finished this book I wanted to read it again, cover to cover. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for this author in future.

[Catherine McNamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful language, resonating settings, plausible and gutsy. The stories have a strong female sway, and a gritty contact with the earth. Lots of odours, blood, suspended happenings that unreel purposefully. I like Hall's tight and ungiving endings, although she often wishes bad things upon her male companions who lightly tred through the book. This is a book of lyricised punches, cold shadowy places of water, of earth, of insect-ridden cities. Harshly contemporary.

[Kathryn]

I am thrilled to have won this book! My daughter and I both will enjoy this one. Can't wait to post my review.

[Tomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirjassa tärkeintä on sen sisältämä teksti, sisältö, mutta kaikkein parhaiten kirja taideteoksena toimii, kun myös kirja kirjana, objektina, nousee tavallisen yläpuolelle tukemaan sisältöä.

Sarah Hallin The Beautiful Indifference on hieno novellikokoelma tekstin tasolla ja todella hienosti koottu teos niin toimittamisen (tarinoiden määrä, järjestäminen) kuin taiton ja desiginkin puolesta. Kannen kuva näyttää ensinäkemältä ihan tavalliselta, kunnes siihen alkaa kiinnittää tarkemmin huomiota: eihän ihmiskeho näytäkään ihan tuolta. Visuaalinen silmä jatkuu kirjan taitossa, joka on samaan aikaan huomiotaherättämätön niin kuin kuuluukin, mutta jossain vaiheessa lukemista huomasin kiinnittäväni huomioni siihen, miten väljästi/tiiviisti teksti on sivulla, minkälaisen muodon se paperille luo. Yleensä kirjan taittoon kiinniittää huomiota vain silloin, kun se on pielessä.

Ehkä tämä ylenpalttinen visuaalinen fiilistely on vain keino vältellä puhumasta itse tarinoista, Sarah Hallin proosasta. En tiedä miten kuvata sitä. Yhtäältä kyse on paljaan ihmisen (tarkemmin: naisen) kuvaamisesta, mutta kuten kannen kuvassa, on tarinoiden naisissa tavallisuuden lisäksi myös jotain kummallista. Joko heidän suhteessaan maailmaan (usein etäinen, kuin verhon takaa) tai itseensä (usein mukana onkipua tai kaipausta/kyvyttömyyttä johonkin yhteyteen) - tai siihen, mitä vähäeleisissä mutta dramaattisissa (mutta vähäeleisissä, jne.) tarinoissa tapahtuu.

Kirkkaasti kuvattujen päähenkilöiden sisäisten maailmojen lisäksi tarinoissa on todella vahva paikan tuntu. Useimmissa novelleista ollaan Pohjois-Englannin maaseudulla/kylissä tai ainakin kaupungista käsin suhteessa niihin, mutta parissa ollaan suhteessa "eksoottiseen": Afrikkaan ja Suomeen.

Novelli on hankala laji, Sarah Hall saa sen näyttämään helpolta. Hieno uusi kirjailijatuttavuus.

[Jungian.Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was definitely and intriguing short story collection.

The Beautiful Indifference is a collection of 7 short stories that explore different relationships. Each story plays out on vivid landscapes across the world, following women as they navigate the complexities of love, tradition, desire and death. It is perceptive and precise in its description of desire and the death of it, the breakdown (or wasting away, perhaps) of relationships.

From a married women, who is no longer desired by her partner, seeking out exhilarating sexual encounters to unfortunate decapitations, this book had everything.

However, each story felt a little incomplete. Almost like, a cliffhanger at the end. At first I was annoyed at how these stories ended but now I think the cliffhanger leaves a space for relationship growth, growth that I can shape the way I want. I mean I could choose to believe that the guy who got his leg chomped on, was saved and they all lived happily ever after.

"The truth of death is a peculiar thing. For when they leave us the beloved are as if they never were. They vanish from this earth and vanish from the air. What remains are moors and mountains, the solid world upon which we find ourselves, and in which we reign.”

TW. Abortion, gore

[Richard Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first came to Sarah Hall through her novels, but she has also proved to be a master of the short story.

This collection of seven stories did not begin life as a collection, as most were published individually, but they cohere together well.

There is a sensual quality to many of the stories. Sarah Hall writes genuinely sexy prose, but it is also sinuous and sparse rather than purple. Her writing is distinctive too. You know when you're reading Sarah Hall.

Many also connect to the landscape and some stories have strong roots in Cumbria - the county where she grew up.

But there are other settings too - an African holiday, and a Finnish lake. There is a sense some are grounded in personal experience.

All satisfy and there are no weak links, but for me the final story is the standout. Vuotjarvi's Finnish setting provides a beautiful backdrop, but Hall also captures the menace of the natural world, and, like many of the best short stories, it ends on a pitch-perfect note of narrative tension.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were not my favorite, however, I really enjoyed Bees and The Nightlong River. I liked the fast-pace style of all of them and I thought the characters throughout were pretty interesting.

“Do you think we all have a glitch?” Page 53 (The Beautiful Indifference)

“Always before you felt full, heavy with what had made you and who you were. You wonder if it’s a prerequisite for living in the metropolis, the scraping out of past existence to make way for a new, enormously complicated one.” Page 70 (Bees)

“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head, the inscription read above the church hall door. But sometimes it’s better not to look up. So we began starving the hounds.” Page 156 (The Nightlong River)

The truth of death is a peculiar thing. For when they leave us the beloved are as if they never were. They vanish from this earth and vanish from the air.” Page 165 (The Nightlong River)

[Irene Jurna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zeven verhalen als een sumi-e schildering: waarin de witruimtes - dat wat niet te zien is of gezegd wordt - sterk het beeld bepalen.

Als je mijn reviews leest, weet je dat ik mooi taalgebruik waarder. Nu ook bij Sarah Hall. Ze zet verrassende vergelijkingen neer die niet gekunsteld overkomen. Ook de gevoelens van de vrouwelijke hoofdpersonen omschrijft ze prachtig.

Jammer genoeg voelde ik me aan het eind van elk hoofdstuk teleurgesteld door het plot. Of misschien meer het ontbreken ervan, want ook de afloop van de verhalen voelt als witruimte. Ik had graag iets duidelijke penstreken en ingekleurde verhaallijnen gezien.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's only February but it'll be hard to top this collection of short stories for my favorite of the year. These stories all have female leads, but none of them are fluffy. Kind of the opposite of the chick-lit book I read previous to this. Love the grit.

[Jane Dugger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed some of the stories immensely and felt some other fell flat. Although, I think this would be a good book for discussion.

[Sean Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark, sensuous and eco-apocalyptic collection of short stories. Sarah Hall's prose is darkly menacing, ecologically charged and emotionally fragile. A very good collection of stories by one of Britain's best short story writers.

[Read By RodKelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection filled with intensely beautiful sentences and strong protagonists. I'm immediately going to read another of her books because this was too short. I love descriptive writing and she does it so so well.

The truth of death is a peculiar thing. For when they leave us the beloved are as if they never were. They vanish from this earth and vanish from the air. What remains are moors and mountains, the solid world upon which we reign. We are the wolves. We are the lions. After so many nights treading the banks, intent on some mettlesome purpose I did not truly understand, night after night I dreamed of the river. I dream it now: a river of stolen perfumes, winding its way through our inverse Eden.