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Ice Cream
Award-winning and New York Times Notable author of The Siege and A Spell for Winter, Helen Dunmore encapsulates, in her brilliant story collection Ice Cream, “how a single moment can change the course of a life . . . [the stories are] rich with regret, turmoil, and strained optimism” (Entertainment Weekly).
Witty, stylish and evocative, Ice Cream is Helen Dunmore’s astonishing new collection of stories, the first to be published in the United States. World-class storyteller Helen Dunmore explores friendship, regret and mysterious passions in stories crafted with subtlety, humor and a surprising tenderness. In each taut, agile tale, characters negotiate situations that are often both mundane and bizarre: a cafeteria cook confronts her Polish pen pal; a divorced mother gains insight from a parking meter; a beautiful, thin and famous woman succumbs to the lure of comfort food; a grieving husband says farewell to his wife; a boastful writer is put in his place in spectacular fashion; and in a chilling future, the government ruthlessly regulates conception and childbirth. In several stories a soulful, curious woman named Ulli takes up residence in the reader’s imagination—stumbling across a strangely charismatic collector of religious icons, contemplating a youthful pregnancy, and remembering a troubled lover.
In Ice Cream, Dunmore reveals both her poet’s ear for the concise and piercing potentialities of language and the novelist’s ambition of scope, proving her status as “a master of the shorter form” (The Sunday Telegraph).
Witty, stylish and evocative, Ice Cream is Helen Dunmore’s astonishing new collection of stories, the first to be published in the United States. World-class storyteller Helen Dunmore explores friendship, regret and mysterious passions in stories crafted with subtlety, humor and a surprising tenderness. In each taut, agile tale, characters negotiate situations that are often both mundane and bizarre: a cafeteria cook confronts her Polish pen pal; a divorced mother gains insight from a parking meter; a beautiful, thin and famous woman succumbs to the lure of comfort food; a grieving husband says farewell to his wife; a boastful writer is put in his place in spectacular fashion; and in a chilling future, the government ruthlessly regulates conception and childbirth. In several stories a soulful, curious woman named Ulli takes up residence in the reader’s imagination—stumbling across a strangely charismatic collector of religious icons, contemplating a youthful pregnancy, and remembering a troubled lover.
In Ice Cream, Dunmore reveals both her poet’s ear for the concise and piercing potentialities of language and the novelist’s ambition of scope, proving her status as “a master of the shorter form” (The Sunday Telegraph).
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Helen Dunmore
116 books972 followersI was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints.
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later.
I studied English at the University of York, and after graduation taught English as a foreign language in Finland.
At around this time I began to write the poems which formed my first poetry collection, The Apple Fall, and to publish these in magazines. I also completed two novels; fortunately neither survives, and it was more than ten years before I wrote another novel.
During this time I published several collections of poems, and wrote some of the short stories which were later collected in Love of Fat Men. I began to travel a great deal within the UK and around the world, for poetry tours and writing residences. This experience of working in many different countries and cultures has been very important to my work. I reviewed poetry for Stand and Poetry Review and later for The Observer, and subsequently reviewed fiction for The Observer, The Times and The Guardian. My critical work includes introductions to the poems of Emily Brontë, the short stories of D H Lawrence and F Scott Fitzgerald, a study of Virginia Woolf’s relationships with women and Introductions to the Folio Society's edition of Anna Karenina and to the new Penguin Classics edition of Tolstoy's My Confession.
During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.
In the late 1980s I began to publish short stories, and these were the beginning of a breakthrough into fiction. What I had learned of prose technique through the short story gave me the impetus to start writing novels. My first novel for children was Going to Egypt, published in 1992, and my first novel for adults was Zennor in Darkness, published in 1993, which won the McKitterick Prize. This was also my first researched novel, set in the First World War and dealing with the period when D H Lawrence and his wife Frieda lived in Zennor in Cornwall, and came under suspicion as German spies.
My third novel, A Spell of Winter, won the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996, and since then I have published a number of novels, short story collections and books for children. Full details of all these books are available on this website. The last of The Ingo Quartet, The Crossing of Ingo, was published in paperback in Spring 2009.
My seventh novel, The Siege (2001) was shortlisted both for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. This was another researched novel, which grew from a lifelong love of Russian history, culture and literature. It is is set in Leningrad during the first year of the siege of the city by German forces, which lasted for 880 days from the fall of Mga on 30th August 1941. The Siege has been translated into Russian by Tatyana Averchina, and extracts have been broadcast on radio in St Petersburg. House of Orphans was published in 2006, and in 2008 Counting the Stars. Its central characters are the Roman poet Catullus, who lived during the last years of the Republic,
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 23, 2025
These 18 pieces are quite varied: a few have historical settings, two are written in the second person, and several return to the life of Ulli (a recurring character from Love of Fat Men), a Finnish teenager who faces an unexpected pregnancy. Even the slight-seeming ones are satisfying slices of fiction. The title story and its follow-up, “Be Vigilant, Rejoice, Eat Plenty” advocate sensual indulgence, which I guess is the reason for the cover image – which I couldn’t decide whether to hide or flaunt as I was reading it in public.
Often, there is a hint of menace, whether the topic is salmon fishing, raspberry picking or the history of a lost ring. “The Clear and Rolling Water” has the atmosphere of a Scottish folk ballad, which made it perfect reading for our recent holiday to Scotland. “Leonardo, Michelangelo, SuperStork” and “Mason’s Mini-break” stand out for their dystopian and magic realist touches, respectively. In the former, couples are only allowed to conceive via state- sanctioned services; in the latter, an arrogant Booker Prize-winning author is patronizing when he meets a would-be writer while on holiday in Yorkshire.
Two of my favourites were “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife” and “Swimming into the Millennium,” which might have been written by Helen Simpson. All are of a high standard, and though they don’t fit together per se and mostly won’t stay with me, I really do rate Dunmore as a short story writer.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Often, there is a hint of menace, whether the topic is salmon fishing, raspberry picking or the history of a lost ring. “The Clear and Rolling Water” has the atmosphere of a Scottish folk ballad, which made it perfect reading for our recent holiday to Scotland. “Leonardo, Michelangelo, SuperStork” and “Mason’s Mini-break” stand out for their dystopian and magic realist touches, respectively. In the former, couples are only allowed to conceive via state- sanctioned services; in the latter, an arrogant Booker Prize-winning author is patronizing when he meets a would-be writer while on holiday in Yorkshire.
Two of my favourites were “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife” and “Swimming into the Millennium,” which might have been written by Helen Simpson. All are of a high standard, and though they don’t fit together per se and mostly won’t stay with me, I really do rate Dunmore as a short story writer.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
April 24, 2021
Having sampled one of Dunmore's novels, I decided it was time to try her short stories. Ice Cream is a strong collection in which Dunmore covers a range of subjects and even genres.
For the most part she writes very sympathetic relationship dramas and the ones I responded to best had the simplest premises featuring naïve protagonists. While Dunmore can certainly write about characters who know their own minds, it is when she writes about shyness that I feel she is at her most moving.
That being said she also manages comedy stories well, especially when the humour is observational. There is even an element of science fiction in here that took me pleasantly by surprise. Suffice to say, throughout Ice Cream the writing style is clean and enjoyable, even if I didn't take to every single story.
I recommend Ice Cream to fans of Dunmore and anyone who likes a varied but comforting collection of short fiction.
Notable Stories
• My Polish Teacher’s Tie – a lovely tale of pen pals, Polish culture and poetry set in a believable school environment.
• Leonardo, Michelangelo, Superstork – a paranoid sci-fi story about genetic engineering, akin to Margaret Atwood.
• Ice Cream – a funny short vignette about the hardships of being a supermodel and giving in to yummy temptation.
For the most part she writes very sympathetic relationship dramas and the ones I responded to best had the simplest premises featuring naïve protagonists. While Dunmore can certainly write about characters who know their own minds, it is when she writes about shyness that I feel she is at her most moving.
That being said she also manages comedy stories well, especially when the humour is observational. There is even an element of science fiction in here that took me pleasantly by surprise. Suffice to say, throughout Ice Cream the writing style is clean and enjoyable, even if I didn't take to every single story.
I recommend Ice Cream to fans of Dunmore and anyone who likes a varied but comforting collection of short fiction.
Notable Stories
• My Polish Teacher’s Tie – a lovely tale of pen pals, Polish culture and poetry set in a believable school environment.
• Leonardo, Michelangelo, Superstork – a paranoid sci-fi story about genetic engineering, akin to Margaret Atwood.
• Ice Cream – a funny short vignette about the hardships of being a supermodel and giving in to yummy temptation.
December 6, 2021
There's something wonderful about short stories that I can't really describe. This is a good mix of stories... ones that are self contained with neat satisfying endings, some leave you dangling as if you're expected to finish the story yourself, some end abruptly as leave you stunned, some are happy, some are devastating. More please!
Read
June 20, 2013It is such a loss if you flip over one page of this book without having it carefully read. Beautiful way of writing, beautiful details and stories. Thanks Hala for lending me the book, enjoyable!
March 23, 2011
Delicious stories, each one different, several worthy of re-reading. Dunmore is a wizard at writing flavours, scents, food and nature; every page is spiced with sensory experience. There are stories to sink into, to drift away with. Warm stories, and cool ones for when the summer gets too hot. Perfect!
August 5, 2016
Liked the way evocative stories are told in different voices. One story a day enriches me so much. Some of my favorite stories are... "My Polish Teacher's Tie", "Ice Cream" & "Lisette" !!!
August 21, 2019
I still think about some of these stories as i felt connected to the characters and cared about the situations. Other stories were too open-ended for me or I wasn't sure what I had read when I had finished, but I didn't care enough to read them again. My favourites were My Polish Teacher's Tie, Lilac, Ice Cream, Mason's Mini-Break, and Lisette.
March 6, 2023
3.5 stars
I read most of this short story collection mid last year, and then accidentally neglected it until this week.
I don't really remember most of the stories that I read in May/June, but I liked the writing (my first from Dunmore) and most of the stories. If not the cover.
I bought this second hand at a stall while I was doing an absentee vote in the federal election in May 2022.
I read most of this short story collection mid last year, and then accidentally neglected it until this week.
I don't really remember most of the stories that I read in May/June, but I liked the writing (my first from Dunmore) and most of the stories. If not the cover.
I bought this second hand at a stall while I was doing an absentee vote in the federal election in May 2022.
August 29, 2024
Stories of uncomfortable comings-together of disparate folk, against a variety of well-evoked backgrounds. Misunderstandings, concealments and awkward conversations. A thoroughly rich and entertaining collection.
October 9, 2021
didnt really get some stories but my polish teacher's tie and lisette were the few of my favourites.
June 3, 2023
These are quite different stories, some of which I enjoyed more than others, but on the whole this is very fine and sensitive writing, very Dunmore-esque !
July 4, 2024
I liked these a lot. Short story is a format I'm slowly getting used to and I highly recommend this.
August 8, 2024
I don’t usually enjoy short stories but Helen Dunmore’s characters in each story really drew me in. The writing is beautiful and each short story stayed with me long after I finished it.
May 19, 2025
a wonderful selection.
February 2, 2011
Helen Dunmore is a prolific and talented British writer, whose work I discovered several years ago when I picked up her novel With Your Crooked Heart in the bargain bin. She began her writing career as a poet but has written short stories and books for children as well. Her novel A Spell of Winter won the first-ever Orange Prize.
The fact that Dunmore is a poet is obvious in her collection of short stories, Ice Cream. Her use of language is spare and precise. But the thing that makes this collection of stories resonate is the subject matter: death, friendship, regret. And even more interestingly, I couldn’t name one story in this collection that has a tidy ending. So if you like a short story that wraps everything up in a neat bow - this volume will likely disappoint you.
I don’t know that many writers, though (Alice Munro excepted because she can write a short story about anything!) who could dedicate a few hundred words to the tale of a man driving at night who really, really wants a cigarette. Or tell the deeply affecting tale of a man watching his young wife die. Or the slightly creepy tale of a world where women have their babies through artificial means and what happens to one couple who chooses the natural route.
For the short time you spend with the characters in Dunmore’s stories, you are entranced, mystified and troubled. And even though we don’t always learn their ultimate fate, the stories are enough because of the writer telling their tale.
The fact that Dunmore is a poet is obvious in her collection of short stories, Ice Cream. Her use of language is spare and precise. But the thing that makes this collection of stories resonate is the subject matter: death, friendship, regret. And even more interestingly, I couldn’t name one story in this collection that has a tidy ending. So if you like a short story that wraps everything up in a neat bow - this volume will likely disappoint you.
I don’t know that many writers, though (Alice Munro excepted because she can write a short story about anything!) who could dedicate a few hundred words to the tale of a man driving at night who really, really wants a cigarette. Or tell the deeply affecting tale of a man watching his young wife die. Or the slightly creepy tale of a world where women have their babies through artificial means and what happens to one couple who chooses the natural route.
For the short time you spend with the characters in Dunmore’s stories, you are entranced, mystified and troubled. And even though we don’t always learn their ultimate fate, the stories are enough because of the writer telling their tale.
October 17, 2008
These precisely drawn stories of mostly everyday people brought me entirely out of my own everyday... this was a dreamlike experience, or maybe I was just sleepy. "Swimming into the Millenium" was absolutely soaring without being full of itself at all. "Mason's Mini-break" was arch and very funny for readerly-type people. "Emily's Ring" was heart-stopping; it may have scarred me forever. Many of the stories in this collection are wonderful - one or two not so much - but those three are exquisite.
December 19, 2007
I love short stories, but they always run that risk of being unfulfilling, having to cram some kind of plot or meaning into a few pages, like eating a meal on the run instead of getting to savor it.
Or in this case, failing to cram any meaning into a few short pages...I found the stories impressionistic, like they were simply trying to flash a few scenes or thoughts in my mind without really giving me something to grasp.
Eh...
Or in this case, failing to cram any meaning into a few short pages...I found the stories impressionistic, like they were simply trying to flash a few scenes or thoughts in my mind without really giving me something to grasp.
Eh...
August 28, 2014
It is no secret that I love the short story, and some of these are even short-short stories. I love the way a glance, an observation, a pause in a sentence can reverberate. A good short story writer creates a little album of moments that together make a story richer than pure narative alone. I like the title story in particular, as well as the one where two childhood friends spend time at a summer house...what they talk about and what they do not are equally poignant.
July 24, 2008
I enjoyed this book, as far as I ever enjoy short stories. There were a couple of stories that I just loved, like the Charlotte Brontë one and "Swimming Into the Millennium." And then there were some where I finished them and couldn't figure out what I had just read. Overall, a nice read--diverting enough for a few days.
October 30, 2013
This book was a collection of multiple short stories. Some stories were definitely stronger than others in terms of emotional context and story plot-line. I constantly had to fight a huge temptation not to skip the short stories I didn't like altogether. While some of the stories were entertaining with the use of language, character and comedy- other's didn't make sense or just dragged on.
September 2, 2011
A sensual collection with some memorable takles especially the dawn of sexuality and child's awareness in 'Lilac'.
'He gathers himself, but all he can see is Rose, naked, swimming our from between another woman's legs as if she'd been born there' p.158
'He gathers himself, but all he can see is Rose, naked, swimming our from between another woman's legs as if she'd been born there' p.158
October 7, 2007
I've been told one either likes Dunmore or doesn't. I definitely like her and reading this book was just like eating -- well -- ice cream.
Want to read
September 16, 2009suggestion from alison
March 19, 2010
A fantastic short story collection! I loved her spare and scintillating prose, her quick and insightful character sketches, her excellent pacing within each sweet and sinful bite of story.
November 8, 2017
I bought this book because I thought it would be good "fluff" reading on the plane. It really surprised me. Excellent book; very well written. I want to get more things from this author.
September 18, 2010
Brilliantly diverse. A wide range of subject matter and narrator/viewpoint.
April 8, 2011
Just like other short story collections, some where really good and some not so good.
March 16, 2013
Some of these stories were pretty bland and pointless with little emotional resonance. But quite a few were lovely and engaging and moving.
October 22, 2013
A lot of short stories, enjoyable, but I would rather just have a story. I wanted each story to continue.
June 2, 2015
Each story is written very poetically and concise.
I read through it quickly though, and so I felt that at the end of some stories I was missing something.
I read through it quickly though, and so I felt that at the end of some stories I was missing something.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews