Matters of Life & Death by Bernard MacLaverty (English) Paperback Book

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Any book of stories from Bernard MacLaverty is a cause for celebration, but Matters of Life and Death is more than that, as it is - without question - one of the finest contemporary examples of the short story as a genre.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

An exquisite story collection yet from a contemporary master of the form.Any book of stories from Bernard MacLaverty is a cause for celebration, but Matters of Life and Death is more than that, as it is - without question - one of the finest contemporary examples of the short story as a genre.Beginning with the sudden, nauseating terror of a family caught up in an explosion of shocking sectarian violence and ending with the white-out of an Iowa blizzard and a different kind of fear, Matters of Life and Death is a book about bonds and connections, made and broken, secret and known. Vivid, beautifully controlled and written with effortless skill and empathy, these stories are object lessons in the art of short fiction.

Notes

Dazzling short story collection from a contemporary master of the form which explores bonds and connections, made and broken, secret and known.

Author Biography

Bernard MacLaverty lives in Glasgow. He has written five previous collections of stories and five novels, including Grace Notes, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and Midwinter Break, the Bord Gais Energy Irish Novel of the Year. He has written versions of his fiction for other media - radio and television plays, screenplays and libretti.

Review

These are stories in the easiest and most pleasurable sense of the word. MacLaverty's work is in a line from Chekhov, via Frank O'Connor -- Anne Enright * Guardian *I have not read anything as good for a long time * Literary Review *Eleven exquisite examples of the genre... MacLaverty writes with consumamte skill... This is a book to cherish and one to read and re-read with pleasure in the skilful craft of its composition * Irish Independent *MacLaverty is an exhilarating, tender, humorous wirter... who can set a scene and create a character with Chekhovian delicacy and economy... He reminds us that although life is a dangerous, painful business, we should never despair * Sunday Telegraph *This stupendous new book - crucial, shattering sentences - that express, modestly, monumentally the achievement of this extraordinary writer. He is in behind your eyes before you feel his thinking knife ...Matters of Life and Death is a great book. The explicit presiding literary presence is Chekhov. Not reached nor striven for, innate, rather -- Candia McWilliams * Scottish Review of Books *

Promotional

The finest short story collection yet from a contemporary master of the form

Kirkus US Review

Eleven new stories from MacLaverty (The Anatomy School, 2002, etc.) reveal the Irish-born, Glasgow-resident writer's uncanny knack for elucidating character with telling phrases and homely details.The title piece, delivered in two parts titled "Learning to Dance" and "Visiting Takabuti," concerns lessons of loss. Two young boys stay with glamorous parental friends while arrangements for their father's funeral are made. In "Learning to Dance," the eldest brother's perceptions deftly mirror the grief that well-meaning gestures seek to blanket; and "Visiting Takabuti" shows an elderly woman, who lost her only love in WWI, trying to demonstrate to her grand-nephews, by way of a museum mummy exhibit, the soul's way of bidding adieu. In "The Wedding Ring," the body of a sheltered Irish virgin killed in 1904 is found and discovered to have been secretly married. Although readers may cheer a woman's cool-headed way of avenging her rape in "Up the Coast," forays into her assailant's skewed consciousness verge too closely to Cape Fear-type melodrama. The most moving story ("The Clinic") imparts Chekhovian insights to a day of diabetes testing. "A Trusted Neighbour" exposes the naivete of the narrator's assumption that religious tolerance reigns in his Belfast neighborhood through the inexplicable treachery of the bland motorcycle-rider who lives next door. "A Belfast Memory" reads like nostalgic fluff until the bitter gall of a soccer team's persecution bubbles up during a Sunday afternoon tea. Belfast is also the setting for "On the Roundabout," which details a family's rescue of a Protestant mistaken for a Fenian, and for "The Trojan Sofa," about a scheme to burgle Orangemen's homes. An aged woman is consigned "only temporarily" to a nursing home in "The Assessment," a finely rendered tale marred by overly familiar subject matter. When a Scottish poet-in-residence at a Midwestern university gets lost in a blizzard ("Winter Storm"), unintended echoes of a Garrison Keillor riff and a pat ending undermine the subject matter's gravitas.Despite some rough patches, a strong collection embodying the seasoned skill of a master. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review Text

These are stories in the easiest and most pleasurable sense of the word. MacLaverty's work is in a line from Chekhov, via Frank O'Connor

Review Quote

"These are stories in the easiest and most pleasurable sense of the word. MacLaverty's work is in a line from Chekhov, via Frank O'Connor." Guardian "A masterly control of pace and structure, pitch-perfect capturing of voice, characterization that has spot-on credibility." Sunday Times "This stupendous new book . . . crucial, shattering sentences that express modestly, monumentally the achievement of this extraordinary writer. He is behind your eyes before you feel his thinking knife." Scottish Review of Books

Promotional "Headline"

An exquisite story collection yet from a contemporary master of the form.

Details ISBN0099493039 Author Bernard MacLaverty Pages 240 Year 2007 ISBN-10 0099493039 ISBN-13 9780099493037 Format Paperback Publication Date 2007-05-03 Imprint Vintage Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 823.914 Birth 1942 Media Book Language English Publisher Vintage Publishing UK Release Date 2007-05-03 AU Release Date 2007-05-03 NZ Release Date 2007-05-03 Alternative 9781409016632 Audience General We've got this

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