Книга Balancing on the Edge of the World
A terrific collection - luminous, witty and wise. -- Livi Michael
These are stories about power: children without it and adults vying to get or keep it. A small boy struggles with his parents’ divorce, a doctor fails to understand the limits of his medical power, a wronged wife finds a uniquely powerful way to wreak revenge. Sometimes satirical, sometimes innovative and lyrical, the stories home in on those moments when power can spill into powerlessness: the split-second when a self-satisfied teenager is held at knifepoint by muggers, the trip to the woods with the ‘poor kids’ which teaches a small girl she’s no better than them. They chart the opposite moments when people wrest back power: a daughter rebels against her violent father, a struggling writer decides to expose a con man arts worker, a little girl who wishes her lost father would come back finds she has magic powers.
But it’s a slippery thing, power, and these vivid, wry stories spring surprises: for nothing, in the end, is ever quite what it seems.
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For ‘Star Things’:
Almost ethereal in its strangeness and has great energy at its heart.
" - Literary Review"
For ‘Star Things’:
Integral, readable and stylish.
" - City Limits"
Elizabeth Baines has a wry humour and satirical edge.
" - City Life"
For Body Cuts:
Strikingly told.
" - Sunday Times"
About The Birth Machine:
An increasingly powerful narrative ... its presentation of the world of childhood contrasts nicely with a sharp satire.
" - Times Literary Supplement"
About The Birth Machine:
This powerful book leaves you with a sense of disquiet, anger and frustration [and] the realisation ... that what you have just read is an everyday story about an everyday event. As such it is very clever.
" - Everywoman"
About The Birth Machine:
A gripping story, a pithy book.
" - City Limits