Salley Vickers’ incisive Grandmothers, a polished new collection from Sarah Hall and Ness by Robert Macfarlane, this week’s best new fiction
Grandmothers
Salley Vickers Viking £16.99
‘The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy,’ observed the American humorist Sam Levenson. The three grandmothers here would agree.
Blanche, denied contact with her grandchildren, has sought refuge in shoplifting, strong drink and an imaginary lover; clever, spiky Nan plans her own funeral with help from her grandson; while in her shepherd’s hut, gentle Minna finds companionship with a girl who is a kindred spirit if not a blood relative.
An incisive exploration of the ‘sweetly painful’ love that exists between the generations.
Amber Pearson
Sudden Traveller
Sarah Hall Faber £12.99
If you’re one of those readers who resist short stories, then the title tale in this collection might just convince you otherwise.
Told in the second person, it captures a woman sitting in her car, nursing her baby. Outside, a storm echoes her inner turmoil, because not only is she a new mother, she’s also newly motherless. This meditation on attachment and mortality is at once elemental and polished, compressed and expansive.
Six accompanying tales channel sci-fi, folklore and philosophy as they flit from the Lake District to Turkey, confirming that Hall is a writer at the top of her game.
Hephzibah Anderson
Ness
Robert Macfarlane Hamish Hamilton £14.99
What would it mean for land itself to come to life? The question pulses throughout this quirky little work, beautifully illustrated by Stanley Donwood.
Ness styles itself as ‘part novella, part prose-poem and part medieval mystery play’ and was inspired by a bleak spit of land off the Suffolk coast.
The book might equally be billed as an allegory, featuring a character called The Armourer, while other, more benign spirits circle. It is a bitty, fugitive piece but has some haunting moments.
Max Davidson