The Beautiful Indifference - Softcover

Hall, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571230180 ISBN 13: 9780571230181

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2012

Synopsis

From the heathered fells and lowlands of Cumbria with their history of smouldering violence, to the speed and heat of summer London, to an eerily still lake in the Finnish wilderness, Sarah Hall evokes landscapes with extraordinary precision and grace. The characters within these territories are real-life survivors, but whether it's a frustrated housewife seeking extreme experience or a young woman contemplating the death of her lover, dark devices and desires rise to the surface. And the human body, too - flawed, visceral, and full of emotional conflict - provides a sensuous frame for each unfolding drama.

Uniquely disturbing and deeply erotic, this collection confirms Sarah Hall as one of the greatest writers of her generation.

The BEAUTIFUL INDIFFERENCE includes 'Butcher's Perfume', which was short-listed for the BBC National Short Story Prize in 2010

About this title

Review:

'Seven skilfully adrenalised stories, precise and sensual, in which the scent of violence is a constant.' -- Helen Simpson, Guardian Books of the Year

'Reaches a standard that makes award juries sit up and take note . . . Hall's voice is strong and distinctive even, in single, elevated passages, exquisite.' -- Lionel Shriver, Financial Times

'Shows her characteristic ability to cause disquiet ... Hall's sharply perceptive observations strike like slaps ... There is a deeply sensual element to her writing: it is visceral and instinctive ... It's like sinking into a Rothko painting. Language is used inventively. These are stimulating, unsettling stories... [they] intrigue and mesmerise.' -- Independent on Sunday

'Hall evokes her landscapes with bewitchingly vivid prose. Her writing is gutteral and visceral, and her characters are raw and sinewy ... Every one of the seven tales here delights and disturbs in equal measure. The Beautiful Indifference illustrates that short fiction is indeed a finely wrought art form, and Hall is an artist of considerable and concise skill. Each story is a gem, but together they form a collection of astonishingly sensuous power ... Hall is a writer of both rare vision and talent.' -- Sunday Times

'These stories constantly thwart one's dramatic expectations - and are all the more dramatic for it ... This prose, particularly when used to convey the bleakness of the Cumbrian landscape, is wonderful ... She does darkness so very well.' -- The Times

'Sarah Hall's four novels have already shown her to be a writer of extraordinary talents, whether in the rough magic of The Carhullan Army, about female resistance in a near-future police state, or the passionate intertwined narratives of art and identity that make up the Booker-longlisted How to Paint a Dead Man. With her first short-story collection, her writing takes another leap forward, into a landscape entirely her own ....The erotic charge of Hall's writing, its fierce physical power, coexists with her characters' sense of separation: each is a world entire, and they retain their depth, their mystery.' -- --Justine Jordan, Guardian

'Seven luscious, sensuous stories from one of our most talented writers, exploring the erotic, violent relationship between men and women in exquisite, painterly prose.' --Claire Allfree, Metro

'Sensual and striking prose, Hall is at her best capturing wild landscapes.' --Independent

'Monstrous events happen offstage over the course of these seven stories ... but their force is felt all the more powerfully through the precision of Hall's prose.' -- Guardian

'Immaculate collection ... [the characters'] inner monologues are articulate and precise, but the words seem to spring from the characters' raw emotional states rather than considered reflection after the fact, lending them immediacy along with shades of darkness and doubt.' --The Herald

'Sarah Hall's beautifully savage prose works so well because of her love of language . . . Hall's way with words gives[the stories] a brutal freshness that makes them feel new and urgent.' --Independent on Sunday

Book Description:

The Beautiful Indifference is a new collection of short stories by Booker-shortlisted author Sarah Hall.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0571230180
• ISBN 13: 9780571230181
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208