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The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, and other stories

Author(s): Rose Tremain

World fiction

Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward Vlll abdicated in 1936, ended her life (as the Duchess of Windsor) as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her. This superb story plays with the selectiveness of memory: why does Wallis recall the seemingly unimportant, while forgetting the glory days of her notoriety? She can remember her first two husbands - one a bit of a brute, the other very boring - but not the world-famous third one. The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected. An East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life: he tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his 'frame' - or does he? First published 2005.

$28.00 NZD

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A wonderful collection of short stories from the Orange prize-winning author

"This collection is a jewel-box containing gems of near perfection ... She's a consistently superior writer. Do yourself - and literature - a service: Read her."-- "Globe & Mail" ." . . moving and tragic. The Darkness of Rose Tremain is never far from the surface in this brilliantly written short story collection." -- "Express" "Written with the deft imagination we've come to know and love from Rose Tremain." -- "Good Housekeeping ""Mordantly perceptive tales." --" Sunday Times" "Her exactness and lightness of touch in scene-setting are used to superb effect in her short stories." -- "Independent on Sunday"

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General Fields

  • : 9780099268567
  • : Vintage
  • : Vintage
  • : 0.158
  • : September 2006
  • : 199mm X 131mm X 14mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Rose Tremain
  • : Paperback
  • : 823.914
  • : 224