Everyday life crackles with the electricity sparking between men and women, between parents and children, between friends. A son confesses to his mother that he is cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with her lecturer and embarks on an affair with a man in the pub who looks just like him. Young mothers pent-up in childcare dream treacherously of other possibilities; a boy becomes aware of the woman, a guest at his parents' holiday home, who is pressing up too close against him on the beach. A daughter remembers running away from home with her mother; two sisters from a family of nine vow together to grow up free from dreary women's problems. Hidden away inside the present, the past is explosive; the future can open unexpectedly out of any chance encounter; ordinary moments are illuminated with lightning flashes of dread or pleasure. These stories about family life are somehow undomesticated and dangerous.
Sunstroke and Other Stories
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Ten elegant stories from Welsh author Hadley (Everything Will Be All Right) explore the various stages of women's experience. The title story, set at a seaside cottage in Wales and told in an austerely omniscient voice, tracks two attractive early-30ish mothers, one married, the other partnered, who each begin a flirtation with a visiting doctor friend. In Mother's Son, the other woman in an adulterous affair that ended 20 years before finds herself ruefully counseling her grown son—the product of the affair—on dealing with his romantic troubles. Each of these beautifully crafted tales (some set in the 1970s) encapsulates a tender, transformative moment for these real characters, such as the provincial vicar's daughter in Buckets of Blood sent up to visit her older sister in Cambridge for the week who finds, to her horror and disappointment, her sister reeling from a miscarriage that puts her, like their worn-out mother, among the ranks of women submerged and knowing amid their biology. In another tale, a man tracks down the now matronly woman who flirted with him when he was a blushing 13-year-old on a seaside holiday with his family 25 years before. Hadley's eerie, knowing portrayals speak to the heart as much as the mind.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"Miraculous . . . Deft and resonant, [these stories] encapsulate moments of hope and humiliation in a kind of shorthand of different lives lived. Hadley never fails to surprise."--The New York Times Book Review
"Tessa Hadley's gift as a writer is so considerable that her characters' revelations and predicaments linger in the mind long after her narrative has darted off in other directions."--Alice Traux, The New York Times Book Review
"A warm novel that follows the contours of four generations of a family and, in the end, shows us ourselves."--Associated Press on Everything Will Be All Right
"Marvelously intricate . . . Hadley's intelligence puts her in the company of Carol Shields and Doris Lessing."--The Boston Globe on Accidents in the Home
"A warm novel that follows the contours of four generations of a family and, in the end, shows us ourselves."--Associated Press on Everything Will Be All Right
"Marvelously intricate . . . Hadley's intelligence puts her in the company of Carol Shields and Doris Lessing."--The Boston Globe on Accidents in the Home
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, Surprising Stories,
By
This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)
Tessa Hadley's Sunstroke is a marvelous collection of short stories. I can't tell you how many times I pick up a book of stories and just can't get through it for a variety of reasons. Sunstroke was the opposite. These stories are terrific, well-written, witty and thought-provoking. Perhaps the best thing I can say about them is that while reading them, I would come to the last few pages of a story and know, after reading a few, that Hadley had some sort of twist coming, something subtle but still surprising. These stories don't dissappoint. Highly recommended. Enjoy!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Short Fiction,
By
This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)
Rarely is every story in a collection this good. Hadley's prose is keenly intelligent, her characters are flawed, raw, and vulnerable, and her voice is wonderful: wry and honest, sometimes punitive, always compelling. Truly a collection to savor - these stories will stay with you long after you finish reading them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Girls don't always have fun,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sunstroke and Other Stories (Paperback)
These brilliant stories about family relationships are often set with the primary action in the sixties or seventies in provincial England or Wales and with an aftermath in the 21st century. The tales are told from a female point of view and there is something unsatisfactory about the men in their lives. The women, especially the adolescents are shy, clever, self-denigrating and self-sacrificing. There's no major tragedy but a melancholy tinge. Loves are not consummated but sex leads to regret. Even food is not enjoyed and all the beaches are described with distaste. People seldom have a good time unless they drink too much, smoke pot, or are unperceptive jocks. The humor often comes from puncturing the pomposity of pretentious males or poking sly fun at characters who attempt artistic and literary endeavors that are second-rate.
That all sounds a bit negative but these really are superb entertainments, full of great insight and sharp wit.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
manor hall Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wing Lodge, Eggy Stone, New York, Nana Allen, Agit Prop, Toller Knall, Keith Reid, Othcr Storics Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
manor hall Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wing Lodge, Eggy Stone, New York, Nana Allen, Agit Prop, Toller Knall, Keith Reid, Othcr Storics Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
