Mothers

by Chris Power

»Gewichtig wunderschöne Erzählungen.« Daily MailEin heruntergekommener Comedian verdient sein Geld damit, auf Junggesellenabschieden die besten Nummern eines anderen Comedians nachzuspielen, er weiß, dass er längst zu einer Karikatur dessen geworden ist, was er mal sein wollte. Der Moment, in dem er für sich einen Ausweg aus diesem Leben sieht, ist zugleich auch der Moment, in dem äußerlich alles zusammenbricht. Auf einer Wanderung durch britisches Hügelland stellt ein frischverliebtes Paar fest, dass sie einander nicht genug mögen, um sich besser kennenlernen zu wollen. Eine Tochter kommt ihrer Mutter, die längst aus ihrem Leben verschwunden ist, nirgendwo so nahe wie in einem zerfledderten Reiseführer von Europa. Die Geschichten von Chris Power sind bevölkert von Männern und Frauen, denen es unmöglich zu sein scheint, eine wirkliche Verbindung zu anderen aufzunehmen, am wenigsten vielleicht zu sich selbst. In seinen Erzählungen zeigt sich die überragende Fähigkeit des Autors, mit minimalem Einsatz der literarischen Mittel Figuren in großer Komplexität und Tiefe zu erschaffen.»Die zehn Geschichten dieses außerordentlichen Debüts handeln von kurzen Momenten, die durch ein ganzes Leben widerhallen... am Schluss angekommen war ich den Tränen nahe und wollte gleich wieder von vorne anfangen.« Sunday Times »Ein einzigartig aufregendes und raffiniertes Debüt.« The Guardian

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Feminism, Collections

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2018

About the author

Chris Power is the author of the novel A Lonely Man (2021). His story collection Mothers (2018) was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for the vine cover.


Chris Power's stories are peopled by men and women who find themselves at crossroads or dead ends - at ancient Swedish burial sites, river crossings on Exmoor, and raucous Mexican weddings. A stand-up with writer's block embarks upon his last gig. Reflecting on a childhood holiday, a father is faced with the limit to which he can keep his daughters safe. These characters search without knowing what they seek.

Unfortunately, Mothers turned out to be just another book added to the list of beautiful covers with no compelling storyline to leave me rapt. I continually found an arbitrary flow to the stories that made it rather difficult to keep engaged in my reading.

I will say, though, that the first story starts off promising enough with this below passage that captures an intricate character-building moment, without reading like one:

“On my bedroom wall I had a big poster map of the world and in my bedside drawer I kept a sheet of stickers, red and blue. The red stickers were for the countries I had been to, and the blue stickers were for countries I wanted to visit. The only countries with red stickers on them were Denmark and Sweden.”

The author excels at writing detailed imagery and giving voice to specific thoughts and moments, but at the same time, I can't deny that the characters in the stories feel completely stiff and traped on the page. Essentially, nothing informative regarding a character's nature was shared - just their distinct thoughts jotted down.

“Who was she really, this woman? She was my mum, of course, but that was only one part, and I want to know all the parts.”

I went into this hoping for multi-dimensional characters I could root for, or at the very least, care for even a little. But throughout my reading, I felt like something went amiss for me with Mothers that I couldn't quite describe, which was then, funnily enough, put on the page by the author in the following story, when the narrator goes as follows: “But there isn’t any room for them here. Stories need everything extraneous to be stripped away, and Nancy and Kostas, let alone Karla, are extraneous. So are my brothers, who are barely present at all. ”

I found this to be a huge mistake. I'd much rather spend time reading about the people he got into contact with during his summer vacation, instead of wasting pages upon pages describing a made up fantasy game I had zero connection to.

It's interesting, really, because Power's clever ways of exploring and exposing his characters felt unlike anything other. I mean, this quote below made me acutely aware of the linguistic skill it takes to pull something off like this.

“The sky was whitegrey and a cold breeze came from the sea, which lay at the end of the avenue. Standing at a crossing her eyes filled with tears, so completely that for an instant she couldn’t see. Spasms hit her body. She wanted to wipe the tears out of her eyes, but couldn’t lift her arms. There had been episodes like this after her mum died. The sensation, so long forgotten, was instantly familiar. She felt ridiculous, but she couldn’t move. She was a tree in the wind, powerless to do anything but endure. Another spasm went through her and she thought she might be sick. She heard a voice and lifted her head towards the sound.
Her vision began to make sense again. She saw her own face, stricken and doubled: her reflection in the lenses of a large pair of sunglasses worn by a middle-aged woman in a long black coat.”

That moment at the end of seeing her reflection in a stranger's sunglasses felt like such a bright move on the author's part. I was taken back by the originality of it all and how the writing didn't succumb to the usual clichés.

“What am I doing in France?’ she said out loud. She repeated it, then repeated it again, placing the stress on different words in turn. ‘ What am I doing in France? What am I doing in France? What am I doing in France?’ ”

These little individual moments is the only link that unites the stories together. So I was a tad dissapointed when the disconnect created between those instants and the flow of each story held me back from truly appreciating Mothers.



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[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a highly accomplished debut collection of short stories. There are ten stories in the book, which starts and ends with two of the three linked ones that give the book its title, which form an episodic life story of Eva, born in Sweden and orphaned young, a traveller who marries the English narrator of the final part, a novella which relates the story of her failed marriage and descent into alcoholism and mental illness and explores the effect on her daughter.

Many of the other stories are equally impressive, often focusing on small moments of great significance in ordinary lives. As a walker I particularly liked The Crossing, a story of a mismatched couple on a walking trip in Exmoor that goes badly wrong - this is largely based on real places but the geographical details are stretched a little to suit the story.

Thanks to Jonathan, who chose this as one of his favourites of 2018, which is what brought it to my attention.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book during a work trip in a fug of anxiety, so I couldn't remember as much as I'd have liked about it and had to skim back over the stories to remind myself of their plots and themes. The sentences I highlighted on first read are all about atmosphere or weather, describing air that's greasy with the coming storm or feels like a substance; it gathered itself in buzzing shapes, but what strikes me when revisiting them is Power's skill in evoking vulnerability and uncertainty, the numb traces of old trauma, the inherent difficulty in telling stories about one's own life. The collection also has an international flavour; many of the stories are about travel, or at least feature travel, and capture the difficulty of communicating across the barriers created by different languages and cultures.

Among my favourites were:
'Above the Wedding', in which Liam must endure Miguel and Nuria's wedding while hiding confused emotions about his clandestine affair with Miguel a few years earlier. The emotional intensity of Call Me by Your Name combined with the honesty and sharp imagery of Leaving the Atocha Station.
'The Haväng Dolmen'. A superb travel narrative, a gripping portrait of solitude and uneasiness, and also a quiet sort of horror story. Begins with an irresistible sentence: Several months ago, while travelling in Sweden, I experienced something I have given up trying to explain.
'Johnny Kingdom', about an ageing stand-up comedian/celebrity impersonator who's ready to quit – but first he must perform at a bachelor party. Quite unlike anything else in Mothers, this is, by some distance, the most memorable story in the book. It seems a bit too obvious to compare it to A Horse Walks into a Bar, but it really does have the same horribly compelling vibe.

Running through the book like a connective thread is a series of scenes from the life of Eva. This character appears in the three stories that (presumably) give the book its title: 'Mother 1: Summer 1976', 'Mother 2: Innsbruck' and 'Mother 3: Eva'. In the first story, Eva is eleven years old, obsessed with her neighbour Nisse and his glamorous mother; ultimately she falsely accuses Nisse of an act of vandalism. In the second, she is travelling alone, with all the joy and fear that entails. The third mainly revolves around the viewpoint of Eva's estranged husband, who is so needy, selfish and awful that it does rather taint the whole story-in-pieces. I wondered if I was supposed to sympathise, but even if I wasn't, I'd have preferred to hear more about Eva from her.

There's nothing spectacularly new or different about the stories in this collection, they don't do anything radical with the form, but they are artful and acute; there's something very genuine about the people and situations depicted here, which is refreshing in its own way.

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[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had no intention of reading this book, I mean, it wasn't even on my list, but then I had a rather marvellous library trip where I saw this book looking rather tantalising sitting upon the shelf, complete with that grand cover and well, you know..

Mothers was by no means a terrible read. I didn't love it, but with most short story collections this is usually the way it goes. This contains ten stories, and out of those, I had two favourites. The first is called 'The Crossing' which is about a couple who partake in a hiking adventure together, but seem to disagree about risks that they are willing to take. This one also had a wonderful twist that I didn't see coming in the slightest. The second that I enjoyed a lot was 'Mother:Eva'. This was longer than the others and really touched on the struggles of mental illness.

Holidaying and romance seemed to be the main themes within the other eight stories which I didn't appreciate as much, but they were certainly readable. My only complaint is that drugs and sex seemed to be the driving force here, which normally I don't bat an eyelid at, but in this case, I think this may have ruined the opportunity for some interesting, fleshed-out characters to come into play. Overall though, this was a quick, and a somewhat interesting read, with a snazzy cover.

[Read By RodKelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mothers is an incredibly cohesive collection of stories which focus on loneliness and remembrance, often concerned with characters who find themselves in circumstances that so deeply envelope them that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions or the actions of those around them.

There is much reflection on past events: a sour love affair, a traumatic childhood event, a mother's early and unexpected death. These memories of the past seamlessly weave themselves into the crumbling substance of the present, which is unbearable for many of the characters living it.

Chris Power revels in his details, in picturesque, lush settings from Mexico, to Greece, to Sweden, to Spain, the US and Istanbul; these are stories of displacement and rediscovery, of lonely wanderings, and the intentional loss of self. Drifters drifting and resurfacing permanently as post cards marking time and place.

[Julie Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know people use the word REFRESHING a lot when talking about books, but this really does feel like a long-awaited fresh breath in the literary world of short fiction.

AWAKENING AND UPLIFTING!


There's so much sincerity and truth in each of these stories, and they're NOT all about mothers necessarily. At first, I'd expected some sort of netmoms split into 2000 word limits, but it's nothing like it.



These stories are adventurous, heartfelt and so SO lovable. They will kick your lack of inspiration or writer's block in the ass. They will make you wanna start your life anew. They will make you realize that you are a part of a hugely interactive, awe-aspiring and pulsating world. And they will make you add Chris Power to your followed authors list.

It's only January, but my literary short story collection shoes are already super huge for another author to fill.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My cup of tea. Stories of disconnect, of trying but failing to find a way forward, superbly written and sharp as knives, yet mapping out a troubled, indistinct territory - depression, an inability to protect loved ones, an inability to love. There are three connected stories (Mothers 1-3) following a woman's life from childhood and her relationship with her mother to becoming a mother herself, and running away from the task. There is much dodging of responsibility, or attempted escapes from life's irritations and commitments; people here are unable to cope, although they try, they search - around the world, the stories are set in UK, Sweden, US, France, Mexico etc. - but don't quite find. Some are absurdly hilarious like the one in which a comedian does a 'tribute' show at a bachelor's party in America, some are creepily sinister (the new-ish couple who are walking in Exmoor which has an unexpected end), all stay with you and turn over again and again in your mind, like puzzles with no solutions, like life.

[Niki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a weird read. When it was good, it was good, but when it was bad, it was really, really bad. There was a little something missing even from the good stories, some sort of disconnection between me and the writer. I'm really not sure what it was. Granted, the subject matter of isolation, wandering with no destination, and growing uneasiness is uncomfortable by default, but this was too uncomfortable for me, if that makes any sense.

I liked "The Crossing", "The Haväng Dolmen", "Portals", and "Johnny Kingdom" the most. The central "Mother 1-3" stories were honestly kind of dull, and I hated "The Colossus of Rhodes" in particular (no, Chris Power, cats aren't "pests" anywhere in Greece, I don't know what you're on about).

This, in my mind, is going straight to my "Horribly depressive" shelf.

**Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book**

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

One brilliant story (The Crossing), some good ones (Mothers 2 & 3) and some average ones - although all really well written, so on balance three stars seemed fair.

[Jonathan Pool · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very strong collection of short stories, and a collection which works beautifully as a coherent whole. The European setting for the stories did remind me of David Szalay’s All That Man Is, and that was a collection that qualified for the 2016 Booker shortlist, on the basis of the linkage of the stories. Stockholm, Greece, Spain, Paris all feature in Mothers.
The structure of the book has been carefully thought out and crafted. Summer 1976, Innsbruck and Eva are first, last and middle of the collection. Eva is the “mother” of the book title and her story, full of gaps is given a clever literary equivalent with the gaps between the three instalments of her life. The final story, Eva, is a tragic one, and continues a theme throughout the stories of sad reflection on past times, of loss, of the solitary and lonely nature of life for some people.
Married couples are given the treatment too. Marital bliss, hardly; marital discord, the fault lines that emerge between couples. Childhood isn’t all a bed of roses, either.

I read the collection in advance of hearing Chris Power and Sarah Hall ( Madame Zero ) at the Charleston Short Story festival in September 2018. Great venue (in the ‘new’ restored, barn); great discussion (chaired by Catherine Taylor); great presence from Chis Power.
Talking about his intentions and influences Chris Power was very open and honest:
• His stories feature a lot of life lived before and after a set of events as described. Citing Alice Munro, Power doesn’t like to a bow, wrap it around, and simply described what happened. People are often self-deceiving.
• Power likes endings that ‘snap shut’. Likes Maupassant
• Eudora Welty an influence.
• Splitting the Ava stories made sense. Reflected the gaps in her life.
• Book front cover, with removal of woman’s face, symbolic of absent mothers.
• Seven of the ten stories involve mothers and motherhood.
There comes a point when a child discovers there’s a person there, and not only a mum. (like discovering, at school, that teachers have and live in houses!!!). Theme is the unknowability of people.
• Colossus Of Rhodes- memory was largely fact, though the frame in Rhodes was fictional.
Spoke to a female friend who gave Power the courage to write the story. Happened once? This happens to girls hundreds of times.
• Power has a two book deal. Next one is a novel. ‘So far the word count is good, but the words are awful!!’

I asked Chris Power about short stories and their inclusion in the world’s biggest literary prize- the Booker. Power is long time editor of short stories for the Guardian, and knows a bit about the form. He was unequivocal (and Sarah Hall beside him- an erstwhile Booker judge) was in full support)- yes they should be, and will be before long. After all Alice Munro was shortlisted for the Prize with The Beggar Maid in 1980

Highly recommended, and a book that reads to me like a genuine crossover between separate short stories, and linked instalments as part of a integrated whole.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the many books I picked up at the Faber Spring Party. I ended up reading the first three stories and skimming the remainder of the book. Of the 10 stories, the first, a middle one, and the last are about Eva, so this is in part a linked collection. In “Mother 1: Summer 1976,” Eva is a child in the Stockholm suburbs in that legendarily hot summer, living with her mother and a stepfather figure, and makes a false accusation against a neighbor boy based on a misunderstanding. I enjoyed the faint echoes of Ian McEwan (Atonement) and Maggie O’Farrell (Instructions for a Heatwave). My other favorite was “The Crossing,” in which Ann and Jim, a fairly new couple, are on a hiking holiday and keep disagreeing about the risks they’re comfortable with taking. There’s a great shock ending to this one, which is always nice, especially in comparison to the close of “Above the Wedding” – the inconclusive, nothing-y sort of ending that always frustrates me in a short story.

In the latter story two brothers travel to Mexico to attend a friend’s wedding, complicated by the fact that the one brother has previously hooked up with the groom. I was reminded a bit of Seven Days of Us and The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Some of the recurring themes in the other stories are travel – with childhood holidays contrasted with adult ones, fending off or welcoming romantic advances, and figuring out how to shape all the random stuff that happens to us into a coherent narrative. I’d recommend the collection as a whole to readers of Katie Kitamura and David Szalay. I felt there was overall too much in the way of drugs, sex and meta self-awareness, and not enough good old-fashioned storytelling with characters you can latch onto and sympathize with. The writing is strong, and I love that cover (the painting There was a girl (2016) by Wanda Bernardino), but the title doesn’t say enough about the book.

Not bad at all, but not entirely for me either.

Favorite passage (from “Mother 1: Summer 1976”): “Who was she really, this woman? She was my mum, of course, but that was only one part, and I want to know all the parts.”

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good solid collection of short stories. Some of the standout stories I found include, Mother (I, II, III), Above the Wedding, The Crossing, The Haväng Dolmen, and Johnny Kingdom.

[Paris (parisperusing) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting through this book was not easy. While I flipped through the first third of it in a single sitting when I started, my interest waned and I ended up putting this book down for days on end until I forced myself through the longest Sunday of my life. Power's debut is filled with lush imagery, however, that lushness quickly fades to boredom.

As someone who likes character growth, I felt that aspect was inundated with useless details — entire paragraphs to scenery, or some banal activity that required a simple sentence. In most cases, I found Power's descriptions of landscapes a distraction and would have loved to have seen that same substance be applied to the characters who peopled the places he writes so vividly about in his stories. Because that's the thing: many of these stories were very intriguing!

In “Above the Wedding” a bride-to-be’s friend finds himself carrying a short-lived romance with her fiancé, a brief fling leads two lovers on a trek through Exmoor that ends in jaw-dropping tragedy in “The Crossing," a father wards the vestiges of sexual abuse as a child looking into the eyes of his young daughters in “The Colossus of Rhodes” — these were astonishing stories and struck an emotional chord with me but the prose by which they are conveyed delays such gratification.

(Also, total disclaimer, as this next part is subjective: as a gay man, I did not care for the overly-aggressive depiction of same-sex intercourse between Liam and Miguel in "Above the Wedding." This stereotypically tacky trope — straight man unable to face his homosexuality uses forceful sex to mitigate his own denial, and the gay man, made to enjoy this, is just happy to be fucked by an attractive man — is downright boring. Men can be just as tender and affectionate with each other as they are with women, and there are other avenues of illustrating that than with such a painful fantasy. But I digress.)

Another thing I found a bit off about MOTHERS was that the title itself is a bit misleading, in that only a few stories concern central maternal themes — we follow a woman named Eva throughout three of them. First from girlhood, when she loses her mother to cancer; again as a young woman roaming Innsbruck with her mom’s aged guidebook, and lastly at the end when she becomes a mother herself. But to be honest, Eva was nothing more than a dispensable character whose story didn't fit with the rest. In fact, I think Eva's narrative would have been better read as a standalone novella.

Even so, Power writes some of the most devastating endings to a story I’ve read from a debut collection, and that’s something to be proud of. I just wished this momentum was consistent from beginning to end. Nevertheless, in the hands of someone who enjoys scenic writing, or at least more than I, they will absolutely enjoy this book. Power's talent is all there, and the emotional heft in his stories offers such a relative, heart-breaking touch that made me cry ("Run" and "The Haväng Dolmen," especially). While this doesn't read very much like a "positive" review, I did enjoy most of what I read; it just needs some fine tuning is all.

Thanks once more to FSG for allowing me to read ahead — can't wait to feature this one on Paperback Paris.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I really enjoyed Power's writing in Mothers, and felt that many of her characters were realistic - particularly Eva, on whom three stories focus - there were a couple of tales here which did not capture my attention. Overall, Power tells of ordinary, mundane occurrences, but somehow manages to make them compelling. I really enjoyed the links to Sweden which many of the stories have, and I know a couple of them are going to stick with me for a long time to come. As it was rather a mixed collection in terms of my enjoyment levels, I have decided to give this three rather than four stars, but I still very much look forward to what Power releases in the future.

[Griflet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.
Banal Realism.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Mother 1: Summer 1976” ⇝ 5 stars
“Above the Wedding” ⇝ 3 stars
“The Crossing” ⇝ 4 stars
“The Colossus of Rhodes” ⇝ 3 stars
“Mother 2: Innsbruck” ⇝ 4 stars
“The Haväng Dolmen” ⇝ 4 stars
“Run” ⇝ 4 stars
“Portals” ⇝ 4 stars
“Johnny Kingdom” ⇝ 4 stars
“Mother 3: Eva” ⇝ 5 stars

[Verena]

Schönes Buch mit eindrücklichen Kurzgeschichten. Vor allem die Naturbeschreibungen in jeder Geschichte sind wahnsinnig gelungen. Obwohl es Kurzgeschichten sind, gibt es einen übergeordneten Plot der dem Buch eine andere Tiefe gibt und den Bezug zu "Müttern" wieder aufnimmt.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mothers is a solid short-story collection debut from Chris Power. Power a skilled writer when it comes to taking on various personalities/perspectives. The characters in the stories felt natural, never forced. The stories in this collection are engrossing, even anxiety-inducing at times, however there was not a standout story. I think this collection will stay with me as a whole, rather than remembering individual pieces.

I received this book free from NetGalley/Farrar, Straus and Giroux in exchange for an honest review.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chris Power writes beautifully but this simply wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Nathalie (keepreadingbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a very ‘meh’ reading experience. From the blurb, I had imagined a collection right down my alley – “characters who search without knowing what they seek” is my jam. Not to mention locations such as “remote and wild Exmoor” and “ancient Swedish burial sites”. The Exmoor story was actually one of the better ones, while the burial site one was instantly forgettable. And that really describes this book rather well: a handful of decent stories that held my attention and a majority of forgettable ones. On top of that, the writing seems very inconsistent. In some stories I’m constantly annoyed by the banality of it: She did this. Then she did that. The light was like this. The air was like that. On and on and on. And then in other stories, it suddenly has a decent and rather poetic flow.

Three of the stories are parts of a whole and likely the ones to inspire the name of the collection: the first (Mother 1: Summer 1976), the fourth (Mother 2: Innsbruck) and the last one (Mother 3: Eva). I didn’t much enjoy the first, but the fourth and last were pretty good. The Crossing was another decent one. I also enjoyed The Colossus of Rhodes and Above the Wedding to some extent, but that’s about it.

/NK

[Pelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm this was not what I thought it would be, especially after all the praise on the back cover. I guess it's an ode to the messiness of life and human relationships but every story had it's own shock factor to it that just made me anxious. Wouldn't recommend unfortunately

[Tom Jerrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this. As will be the case with a lot of these sort of books, I enjoyed some short stories more than others. But most are great. Especially enjoyed the one that involved hiking and the one about the wedding in Mexico (I think?). The opening one felt like a bit of a damp squib and the final, longer story wasn’t my favourite. But overall an enjoyable read.

[Rogue Male · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[J]

"The characters of Chris Power attempt to use stories as an antidote to loneliness, but that’s not to say every effort is redemptive or magically healing. Indeed, sometimes it is actively counterproductive, the stories growing into new, deeper sources of loneliness that grip a soul and refuse to let go. Fiction, it turns out, is not some therapeutic balm. Rather, it is something that can help and hinder, soothe and scorch, and in doing so, be as nuanced and complicated as life itself."

Full review here: http://varioussmallflames.co.uk/2018/...

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was perusing a book store yesterday and came across Chris Power’s amazing cover for his book Mothers and was instantly drawn to it. There was something inside of me that just really wanted to read it and honestly it was just okay. I can say that I was definitely lured by the cover.

The best story in this book of short stories was Above the Wedding. I thank Chris Power really captured a feeling of longing by telling a story of this young man who is enamoured with this other young man who’s about to be married to a woman and the feeling of not being able to do anything about it, but seeking love and going through your own personal torment. A lot of the stories in this book have that feeling of like — longing..searching.. not being satisfied and feeling some type of way. It’s very subtle or internal in each character but still palpable, sometimes culminating in pseudo-shocking results or reactions..

Will I read anything else by Chris Power? I mean, I think this was sufficient. I shouldn’t really judge too harshly because it’s his first book so maybe his efforts will get better. But it was all very sort of blasé; so I won’t be rushing to like fill up my Chris power wheelhouse anytime soon, sorry bud.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of short stories. The three best stories all focus on a character called Eva, who is suffering from an illness with some of the characteristics of schizophrenia and of bipolar disorder ("Mothers" 1, 2 & 3) - grouped together these would have made a strong novella. The other stories in the collection didn't work quite so well (for me): Power is good on sense of place (the stories are set in various locales around Europe and one in the US) but his characters tend to be very same-ish and his endings are frequently unsatisfying. I imagine readers who enjoyed David Szalay's All That Man Is or Greg Baxter's The Apartment would like this collection. "Mothers" certainly shows a lot of promise and I'll be interested in seeing what Chris Power writes next.

[liv church · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't often read short stories, but the majority of this was really pleasing!! the ones that were less interesting took my overall rating down, but the ones that were good were GOOD; I really liked 'The Crossing' for enveloping me in a sort of comfort to be found in a deeply disappointing relationship, within a rural domestic scene, before giving me that unexpected twist that I guess undercut the idea of accepting the imperfect - in that way it was really thought provoking. Also, the fact that it was a story based in Exmoor immediately boosted the rating...

I wasn't initially that much of a fan of the central trilogy just because I found it difficult to get attached to the characters or indeed themes explored, but the ending story really got me.

[Brianna Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked it up because the cover is so pretty. One of those times my intuition led me astray. The first half of the book, the stories are all boring. The writing is great, but they all seem to sort of trail off. I love slice of life writing but really, nothing seemed to happen? Johnny Kingdom and Eva were fantastic and I really enjoyed them. I think if Powers has written novels/will I will read them- the longer stories are clearly his strength.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this book. There did not seem to be any structure to any of the stories unless I had missed the point. It was not until the last story that I realised that there was some kind of a thread going through it but by that time, I had lost interest. I found many of the stories immensely depressing.

[Debi Crawford-Poyner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this collection of short stories. I love to read short stories and I have read many collections.