Hush,
by Anna Scaife
Hush is an elegant collection of eleven short stories that focus on the unsaid. Anna’s stories are about ordinary people in ordinary New Zealand settings. They describe how everyone has their own complex inner life which intersects with the lives of others, more or less successfully.
Some stories slip into the otherworldly or unlikely – a spider that breeds uncontrollably in the clock repairer’s house. A knitting club creating a massive mermaid to protest the closing of a swimming pool. Many contain an ominous note as an undercurrent to the ‘normal’ life described in beautiful detail. The stories are also continuously surprising and amusing:
“…this woman appeared.’ Paul continued, ‘She thundered through the double
doors, our wee midwife scuttling behind like a lamb after its mother… She got in
with her elbow and squeezed you out Bernie, you slid across the bed like a bag of
sausages… I tracked her down, and it turned out the woman who delivered Bernie
was there for the fish.’
Many of the stories are accompanied by a black and white illustration which, similar to the writing, conveys its message in an understated way.
Anna’s stories are all short and easy to read outside of their brevity. Short stories are not my normal go-to as a reader but I’m very glad I read this collection.
by Anna Scaife
Hush is an elegant collection of eleven short stories that focus on the unsaid. Anna’s stories are about ordinary people in ordinary New Zealand settings. They describe how everyone has their own complex inner life which intersects with the lives of others, more or less successfully.
Some stories slip into the otherworldly or unlikely – a spider that breeds uncontrollably in the clock repairer’s house. A knitting club creating a massive mermaid to protest the closing of a swimming pool. Many contain an ominous note as an undercurrent to the ‘normal’ life described in beautiful detail. The stories are also continuously surprising and amusing:
“…this woman appeared.’ Paul continued, ‘She thundered through the double
doors, our wee midwife scuttling behind like a lamb after its mother… She got in
with her elbow and squeezed you out Bernie, you slid across the bed like a bag of
sausages… I tracked her down, and it turned out the woman who delivered Bernie
was there for the fish.’
Many of the stories are accompanied by a black and white illustration which, similar to the writing, conveys its message in an understated way.
Anna’s stories are all short and easy to read outside of their brevity. Short stories are not my normal go-to as a reader but I’m very glad I read this collection.
Review by Jane Shearer
Title: Hush
Author: Anna Scaife
Publisher: Ugly Hill Press
ISBN: 9781067086541
RRP: $40
Available: bookshops
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