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Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), Short stories, Humour
SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE
'Sensual, spiky, tender and utterly original' Pandora Sykes
'A fierce and fascinating debut' Lily King
I was told of an older woman who was asked by her granddaughter, 'Granny, when was the happiest time of your life?'
'I don't know,' she replied, 'I may not have had it yet.'
The stories found in this collection explore the worlds of thirteen older women, reframing their intellectual and emotional lives in intimate vignettes that will shock and comfort in equal measure. In elegant prose Jane Campbell ignites the voices of women who are fighting to live on their own terms, energised by the stuff of human living: a need for companionship, attachments to love-objects, freedoms, integrity and sense of self. Cat Brushing confronts the tragic misconceptions of ageing showing older women to be nothing less than courageous, fearless and defiant in the face of overwhelming odds.
More books by Jane Campbell
Praise for Cat Brushing: a dazzling short story collection about thirteen older women
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Cat Brushing is a fierce and fascinating debut. I loved these women who have taken off their gloves to fight life with their bare hands.
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I loved these fresh, wry, strange stories; by turns moving and unnerving, they disturb expectations of the longings, loves and ambitions of older women.
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I laughed out loud in joy and admiration so many times in this original, surprising book. Cat Brushing is about aging, about sex, about the weirdness of technology, and about womanhood - these stories felt both deeply familiar to me and far too absent from many of our culture's stories. Jane Campbell is a refreshing, compelling new voice.
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Stepping into these stories by Jane Campbell feels like opening a door back into the world. The thrust of life, of longing and regret, of contempt and forgiveness, it's all here in such vivid, delicious phrasing. She reads like Eudora Welty's wicked British cousin, a lot of fun.
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