Other epigraphs

One epigraph for a novel is plenty – and perhaps already too much – but in an attempt to have it both ways, here are some of the big-eyed darlings I had to drown for the new book. First is a quote from Walter Benjamin’s essay on Proust.

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From Lispector’s Near to the Wild Heart (tr. Alison Entrekin)

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And Goethe’s poem ‘Above the mountaintops’

Goethe epigraph

Herald Review

There’s a review of The False River in The Herald newspaper today.

The False River

Nick Holdstock

Unthank, £9.99

The Willesden Herald Short Story Prize might not sound glitzy, but it allows Nick Holdstock’s story “Ward” (in which a teenage girl’s cancer diagnosis changes the course of her life) to be described as award-winning, which feels deserved. And judging by the quality of these stories, it won’t be his last accolade. Short story collections are often front-loaded with the best work, but The False River actually becomes more compelling as it goes along. His ease with dark and transgressive themes (animal-lovers should skip past “The Ballad of Poor Lucy Miller”) brings to mind a young Ian McEwan, but Holdstock is a multi-faceted writer who often seems to be urging his stories to break free of the frames surrounding them and even alters one character mid-story because he doesn’t like the direction it’s going. But mostly this accomplished collection is driven by a burning curiosity about the psychological states of its characters, and it should put him firmly on the literary map.

 

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