England and Other Stories [Paperback]

In these beautifully crafted stories, Graham Swift—author of the Booker Prize-winningLast Orders—presents a vision of a country, England, that is both a crucible of history and a maze of contemporary confusions. Moving from the seventeenth century to the present day, from world-shaking events to domestic dramas and frequently mixing tragedy with comedy,England and Other Storiesis bound together by an underlying instinct for the story of us all: an evocation of that mysterious thing, a nation, enriched by a clear-eyed compassion for how human individuals find or lose their way in the nationless territory of birth, growing up, sex, ageing and death.“Powerful . . . showcase[s] Mr. Swift’s talents as a writer: his gift for psychological observation, his sure sense of craft, his ability to distill nuanced emotional truths from the effluvia of ordinary life.” —The New York Times

“Remarkably expressive. . . . Poignant. . . . One of the pleasures of the aptly titledEnglandis how completely Swift’s characters seem to inhabit their origins.” —The Washington Post

“Outstanding. . . . [Swift’s] verbal intelligence is matched, then more than matched, by the emotional intelligence at work.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“[A] rich, lively collection. . . . The best thing about these stories, what carries the reader smoothly along with the grace and ease of a gondolier on the Grand Canal, is Swift’s prose style. It’s a theatrical act of balance and lightness.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Swift often achieves more in a line than many strive for in a page. . . . The overall impression is one of abundance, of cumulative storytelling riches.” —Financial Times
 
“An affectionate, opinionated, sometimes funny, sometimes sad picture of England and its pelĂ)