Full Description
Storm Warning is the latest collection from award-winning writer Vanessa Gebbie, described as 'prodigiously gifted' by novelist Maggie Gee. It explores the echoes of human conflict in a series of powerful stories inspired by life with the author's own father, who fought and was decorated in WWII, but suffered the after-effects for the rest of his life.
Conflict is often explored from the child's perspective and ranges from conventional warfare to historical religious persecution. War veterans are haunted by events that echo louder and louder, and eventually break them. A prisoner sees the violent execution of a friend and mentor, a boy hides from a necklacing, a young student escapes the fighting in Iraq in the hope of continuing his education in the West and a woman tells what she knows of her parents' torture.
The people in these stories are not those who go down in history, but ordinary troops, the powerless, caught up involuntarily. All are tested, sometimes to breaking point, in this extraordinary collection as Gebbie explores the surreality of conflict and the after-effects of atrocity.
Contents
The Return of the Baker, Edwin Tregear
Storm Warning
Gas Gangrene
Road Kill
Cello Strings and Screeching Metal
Confession to a Drowned Dog
The Wig Maker
Maiba's Ribbon
Letters from Kilburn
The Salt Box
Wei Ch-i
Background Noise
Red Sandals
Large Capacity, Severe Abuse
The Ale-Heretic
On the Beach
Talking to Golda
Lay By
Shibuya Intersection
The Strong Mind of Musa B'Bele
