This absorbing new collection of 20 stories (after Blood
and Foreign Parts)
explores relationships and fears in contemporary Glasgow. Each story offers a different perspective on the quiet desperation of the trapped, but the complex characters stubbornly resist the mold of victims. Even the six-year-old girl in "Someone Had To," brutally abused by her uncle, does not cry out; she responds to his torments with an unblinking stare. In "The Bridge," Fiona overcomes the frantic warnings in her head and stands up to an artist she adores. Galloway imbues her stories with a lurking malevolence, and her characters' defeats could perhaps be attributed to their fears. "Test" opens with a woman awakening to "the crackle of someone unwrapping a claw hammer. A length of cable. Cheese wire." With a combination of relief and disgust, she realizes that a discarded sandwich tray made the sound, but the sense of an unnamed threat relentlessly pervades the story and the collection as a whole. In several of these tales, Galloway departs from the bleak realities of Glasgow housing estates and presents a more surreal vision. In "After the Rains," the sun comes out for the first time in nine months and people literally blossom: the florist turns into a garden; the greengrocer watches a cabbage "foresting the front of his overalls." Galloway's deft prose calmly stretches reality but avoids a descent into the ridiculous, an impressive testament to her talent and versatility. Agent, Jonathan Cape. (Feb. 14)
Forecast:The Valentine's Day pub date may be an ironic gesture. In any case, literary worth and not marketing gimmicks will sell this notable collection.
