Book description
A beautiful collection of stories by a pre-eminent writer, shortlisted
for major awards. Fiona Kidman has a genius for peeling back the lives
of ordinary people to reveal their hidden passions and complexities. In
this brilliant new collection, she explores - with her customary
subtlety and insight - how we are all touched and sometimes scarred by
the flames of emotion - whether it be the impossible love of a pregnant
woman for a married man, grief for a dead baby or loss of a young woman
in mysterious circumstances. Ranging in time from the colonial period to
the present day, these stories by one of New Zealand's foremost writers
are beautifully crafted, intriguing and evocative. '[Her] stories remind
me of those of Alice Munro. Though they are very much of a time and
place they have a universal dimension.' - Booksellers News Shortlisted
for the NZ Post Awards and the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. Fiona
Kidman has published over 20 books, including novels, poetry,
non-fiction and a play. She has worked as a librarian, creative writing
teacher, radio producer and critic, scriptwriter for radio, television
and film, but primarily as a writer. The New Zealand Listener wrote: Â
In her craft and her storytelling and in her compassionate gutsy tough
expression of female experience, she is the best we have. She has been
the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships; in more recent years
The Captive Wife was runner-up in the 2006 Montana Book Awards Deutz
Medal for Fiction, and her short story collection The Trouble with Fire
was shortlisted for both the NZ Post Book Awards and the Frank OÂ Connor
Award. She was created a Dame (DNZM) in 1998 in recognition of her
contribution to literature, and more recently a Chevalier de l Ordre
des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.
 We cannot talk about writing in New Zealand without acknowledging
her, wrote New Zealand Books.  Kidman s accessible prose and the way
she shows (mainly) women grappling to escape from restricting social
pressures has guaranteed her a permanent place in our fiction.Â
