BookList: The haunting floral scent of frangipani permeates this riveting short-story collection from the Australian author of the novel Due Preparations for the Plague [BKL My 15 03]. Hospital’s strength lies in capturing her character’s interior lives with a poet’s grace and precision. The subjects of each story vary, from a mother and daughter whose new home is threatened by its mysterious previous tenant to lovers who reimagine their affair through a series of photographs, but the most powerful are those featuring childhood friends Brian and Philippa, whose intense bond may still not be enough to save them from their inner demons. The collection is thematically linked: each story explores the geographies and memories that define and bind us even as they change shape over time. How we embroider past events or alter and manipulate memories from actual occurrences are key elements in many of the tales. Like Patrick White’s solitary explorer Voss (to whom one story alludes), Hospital’s characters are continually in search of a homeland they may never return to and, perhaps, will never find. -- MishaStone (BookList, 08-01-2004, p1899)
Do You like book North Of Nowhere, South Of Loss (2005)?
