Stories from Other Places

<b>Nicholas Shakespeare</b> was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat much of his youth was spent in the Far East and South America. His books have been translated into 20 languages. They include <i>The Vision of Elena Silves (</i>winner of the Somerset Maugham Award) <i>Snowleg</i> <i>The Dancer Upstairs</i> <i>Secrets of the Sea</i> <i>Inheritance</i> and <i>Priscilla</i>. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He currently lives in Oxford. <p>Nicholas Shakespeare’s collected stories take us around the globe and into the intimate lives of his characters and the dilemmas and temptations they face. <br><br>The opening novella ‘Oddfellows’ tells the little-known history of the only enemy attack on Australian soil during the Great War when in January 1915 the outback town of Broken Hill was rocked by horrifying events. <br><br> From this dramatic First World War encounter we are taken to the faded glamour of 1960s Bombay to a Bolivian mining town in 1908 where civic folly is running amok and to an Argentinian farm presided over by a former air stewardess and her husband. <br><br>Across ocean and continents these are stories of connection and disconnection misunderstanding and missed opportunities identity and displacement.</p> One of the best English novelists of our time One of our best and truest novelists Eight nuggets of pure bold storytelling In each story Shakespeare brilliantly transports us to other places times cultures and communities but for all their differentness and exotic heat and dust in essence they are places we know only too well Shakespeare captures this historical moment beautifully and in elegant prose...It's a fascinating story... skilfully told. It is also timely. Because the story Shakespeare tells resonates so deeply with current tensions it is weightier than its length might suggest.