Submergerd

by a-barker

A.L. Barker dissects the unnerving emotions and startling events of everyday life with the sly humour and exquisite feel for language that prompted Auberon Waugh to declare that she 'writes like an angel and I love her'. In this, her tenth collection of stories, she unfolds tales of cunning, fancy, and shifting alliances. Here a young boy fosters grand illusions; a wife faces broken promises; a dutiful committee woman meets a sparky old gentleman; a witch is drowned; an intruder insinuates himself into a lonely woman's holiday; and commonplace superstition mingles effortlessly with submerged desire.

254 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2002

Reviews

[Math · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some, I included, of the opinion that a writer of A. L. Barker’s skill should be better known. Regularly published and admired by her peers, sadly mass popularity eluded Barker during her lifetime.

I first came across her work in the Pan Book of Horrors in her slightly incongruous, hauntingly- beautiful story Submerged. In fact, haunting is a fitting adjective for many of Barker’s stories and novelettes, not always in the supernatural sense, although many of Barker’s stories do explore such themes, but in the lingering memory of her characters and the human frailties they portray. Recognisable folk, humorous and dark, fanciful and treacherous, where everyday lives blend with superstition, greed, arrogance and desire.

This is an excellent collection of an equally excellent writer. Barker’s prose is subtle and accomplished, and for all students of writing (no matter what level) the stories Submerged and the Iconoclasts provide a short story masterclass.

[Gary Budden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second collection of A.L Barker short stories I have read in quick succession – she's a writer I'm thrilled to have discovered and I'm finding so much to explore in her work. Dark, bleakly funny stories written in exquisite and precise prose. Highlights from this collection is the long, tragic story, 'Novelette', and the disquieting and subtly horrifying stories 'Submerged' and 'The Iconoclasts'. Highly recommended.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

i can't finish every book i read