Selfie and Other Stories

by Nora Nadjarian

Intense and atmospheric, sometimes funny and always honest, these stories are narratives about women in love, in confusion, in isolation. Nadjarian writes about love and loss, human contact and entanglement with the haunting resonance of dream and fable. Her characters are all searching for something missing from their seemingly ordinary lives and the spare, nuanced prose gives the reader a glimpse into their secrets, fears and, essentially, the human heart.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

92 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2017

About the author

Nora Nadjarian is an award-winning Cypriot poet and author. She has represented Cyprus at literary events and festivals in Europe and elsewhere, including Frankfurt Book Fair and Dresdner Bardinale.

Her work has been cited or published in the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Telegraph and has also won prizes and commendations in international competitions, including the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, the Féile Filíochta International Poetry Competition, the Binnacle International Ultra-Short Competition and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize.

A frequent speaker at writing conferences and events, she has been widely anthologised and translated into several languages. Her work deals with the themes of women, refugees, identity, exile, love and loss, as well as the political situation in Cyprus.

Her work was included in A River of Stories, an anthology of tales and poems from across the Commonwealth, Best European Fiction 2011 (Dalkey Archive Press), Being Human (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) , Capitals (Bloomsbury, 2017) and The Stony Thursday Book (Limerick, 2018).

Reviews

[Byurakn]

The characters of the stories in this collection seem to be repeating and at the same time they are different in many ways. The stories are repeating but not quite the same way. They are like photographs taken from many different angles by many different people. The reading process felt like collecting missing pieces of a bigger picture, maybe a selfie. The prose was strong and poetic, which allowed to experience the stories not only at an intellectual but also an emotional level.

[Rebecca]

I picked this up as holiday reading as it was by a Cypriot author but the stories are much more international ranging from Cyprus to the UK, Israel and beyond. They feel very much like short stories written by a poet - not necessarily in the language but in their length and themes. The stories often feel rather elusive or intangible and their meanings not always entirely clear but it doesn’t actually matter as they are just lovely things to read. It’s probably not something I need to read lots of but like poetry I suspect they would be great to dip in and out of as the mood takes you.

[Kate Throp]

I’ve come to the conclusion that being a fast reader is detrimental to the enjoyment of short stories. I am one to sit down and spend a good length of time with a book so to read stories that are short, some barely a page, some several pages long has a staccato effect on me.
I almost feel I have done a disservice to myself and to the book.
The stories have an interwoven feel to them although they are not overtly related. I often felt I was reading the same thread but from another angle. They were nuanced and atmospheric and one in particular absolutely hit a nerve.
I don’t think I will be shelving this book for some time but leaving it out to dip into now and again and revisit at a gentler pace.

[Bronwen Griffiths]

It is not easy to categorise this collection of short stories. There is something slippery about them, like eels. There are often surreal or magical elements in the stories and yet they are always grounded in the real world. Nadjaran explores loss, grief, humour, love and family, people she meets on the train, security officers, a dead man, a receptionist. The stories are set in Cyprus where she lives, in England, Tel Aviv, and sometimes in her dreams. A collection that needs to be read and read again.

[Karen Richardson]

Chosen for the "Read Around the World" challenge: CYPRUS. These short stories - often micro-short of maybe 1 page - are clever, beautiful, and often obtuse. One reason I chose them is that the author was inspired by Sylvia Plath, also a favorite of mine, and it shows in her unusual style.

[Nicole Kroger Joy]

#readtheworld Cyprus

[ElenaSquareEyes]

A collection of twenty-five short stories that are narratives about women on journeys of self-discovery.

First of all I want to give a shout out to the publisher, Roman Books. I love a pretty cover as much as the next person, but the actual packaging of the book was something I don’t think I’ve had before. It’s a cover that feels really nice to hold, it’s all buttery and smooth and I just really liked that and don’t think I’d ever really noticed the texture of a book before.

Anyway. Onto the contents of the book!

Twenty-five stories in a 88 page book means some are super short. I think the longest was seven pages, a few were only a page in length and the rest were somewhere in between. A lot of them certainly packed a punch while being so short. The writing in a lot of them have a dreamlike quality to it. It would lead you in one direction and in the final sentence or paragraph would reveal something that would make you look at the whole story differently. It’s really quite impressive as that was often all done in less than three pages.

The stories are all about or from the points of view of women. Some are written in first person, others in third, and they are all about love, loss, and relationships. Whether it’s romantic relationships or familial ones, it shows the different aspects of women’s relationships and how they can change depending on age. “Origami” is about a ten-year-old girl learning that her father left her and her mother before she was born and how that reshapes her entire outlook on both her parents while “Lemon, Stars” is about two sisters.

A lot of the stories have a melancholy tinge to them, and some are downright sad. “Mrs Gaslight” is, as you might be able to guess from the title, about a woman in an emotionally abusive relationship, and how even if her sister sees the problems, she refuses to. It’s the second story in the collection and I think having it so soon into the book makes it even more impactful.

Selfie and Other Stories is a well-written and interesting short story collection. It’s been a long time since I’ve read short stories that are this short and I’m always impressed how the author can create an atmosphere in so few words.