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Monday 25 March 2013

Sweet Home by Carys Bray

Review by The Mole

A collection of 17 short stories of suburbia. But these are tales of the darker side of suburbia. Starting with a mother who is trying to be the best possible mother by reading anything published on the subject to the story of a father who desperately wants to rescue a son from a life of drugs with many tales in between. A retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel in a modern setting will get you thinking and warrants that the police re-examine the evidence. There is a story of a sculptor and his wife who so desperately want a child that he carves one from a ball of ice - again a story based around folk tales.

With longest of these short stories being just 15 pages long they are a genuine coffee time read. That is if you can resist starting the next. And the next. They are not, by any stretch of the imagination, all similar tales but vary tremendously from story to story, some darker than others and some amusing but all of them thought provoking.

Yesterday I read "I will never disappoint my children" and for the first time in many years I went out and built a snowman - with my wife - while our daughter stayed inside. The story must have been written about my wife I think.

An excellent collection that I'm sure readers will enjoy.

Publisher - Salt Publishing
Genre - Adult short stories

Buy Sweet Home from Amazon

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