The White Road and Other Stories

What links a cafe in Antarctica, a factory for producing electronic tracking tags and a casino where gamblers can wager their shoes? They're among the multiple venues where award-winning writer Tania Hershman sets her unique tales in this spellbinding debut collection. Fleeing from tragedy, a bereaved mother opens a cafe on the road to the South Pole. A town which has always suffered extreme cold enjoys sudden warmth. A stranger starts plaiting a young woman's hair. A rabbi comes face to face with an angel in a car park. An elderly woman explains to her young carer what pregnancy used to mean before science took over.A middle-aged housewife overcomes a fear of technology to save her best friend. A desperate childless woman resorts to extreme measures to adopt. A young man's potential is instantly snuffed out by Nature's whims. A lonely widow bakes cakes in the shape of test tubes and DNA. A number of these stories are inspired by articles from science magazines, taking fact as their starting points and wondering what might happen if...In these surreal, lyrical stories, many of which are only a few pages long, Tania Hershman allows her imagination free reign, as her characters navigate through love, death, friendship, spirituality, mental illness and the havoc wreaked by the weather.

The White RoadHeavy BonesSelf RaisingThe HandSpace FrightI am A CameraOn a RollMugsSunspotsGo AwayBrewing a stormThe Angel in the Car ParkEvie and the ArfidsFlora comes backRainstiffnessHeartKnottedExpressFirstsExchange RatesDrizzlingPlaitsThe Incredible Exploding VictorYou'll KnowMy Name is HenryFish-Filled SeaNorth Cold

...an author dripping with talent, this is as good as modern reading gets. -- New Scientist Christmas Books Special: Best of 2008 This collection exemplifies everything that is best about the short story. With succinctness rarely seen in the work of someone new to fiction, Hershman extracts the very essence of a moment to reveal the poignant fragility of human relationships... each story is so different from the next that you will be tempted to read 'just one more', until you find you have read the whole book in one sitting. Hershman writes in a variety of style that are sometimes whimsical and playful, other times wry and edgy, so that you never tire of her narrative voice. -- Dominique Wilson Wet Ink

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