- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Salt Publishing (1 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1844717216
- ISBN-13: 978-1844717217
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.8 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 472,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Too Many Magpies (Salt Modern Fiction) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'A fantastic achievement from a fresh, noteworthy talent' - Book Scout --Goodreads goodreads.com/review/show/74524754
'I could not drag myself away from its eerie storytelling... An accomplished, thoughtful novel that offers us a strange new lens with which to view the world' - Lisa Glass --Vulpes Libris
The book freezes our times for future generations in a way that the mammoth, multi-layered uber-novels of Franzens, Safran Foers and Mitchells can only dream of... It is a great book.' - Benjamin Judge --Who the Fudge is Benjamin Judge?
'Smartly plotted and with not a word wasted, Too Many Magpies is an appealing, bewitching read, one that feels slightly dangerous and a little bit thrilling. It deals with predictable subjects in unpredictable ways, and for that reason alone it marks Baines as a British writer to watch. Highly recommended.' - Reading Matters blog. --Reading Matters blog
'I could not drag myself away from its eerie storytelling... An accomplished, thoughtful novel that offers us a strange new lens with which to view the world' - Lisa Glass --Vulpes Libris
The book freezes our times for future generations in a way that the mammoth, multi-layered uber-novels of Franzens, Safran Foers and Mitchells can only dream of... It is a great book.' - Benjamin Judge --Who the Fudge is Benjamin Judge?
'Smartly plotted and with not a word wasted, Too Many Magpies is an appealing, bewitching read, one that feels slightly dangerous and a little bit thrilling. It deals with predictable subjects in unpredictable ways, and for that reason alone it marks Baines as a British writer to watch. Highly recommended.' - Reading Matters blog. --Reading Matters blog
Review
Moving and compelling (Sarah Salway )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Modern World Anxieties and Haunting Poetic Prose,
This review is from: Too Many Magpies (Salt Modern Fiction) (Paperback)
Elizabeth Baines has crafted a haunting novel that explores the colliding relationship we have with impassive scientific explanation and the irrational world of magic (or the belief in indomitable predestination and superstition). How does the modern world allow us to reconcile our paranoia and fear with some sense of control over our destiny?This premise has informed English writing since the Romantic Movement, and The Rational versus The Imagination is now a timely theme for us to consider. How do we live our lives to ensure the best for our children, who do we trust, and do we ultimately have any control over our destinies? The book focuses on modern concerns such as food production, the credibility of modern medicine and the authority of the media. These themes are exercised through key plot events; falling in love with someone you shouldn't, the breakdown of a marriage; the unexpected illness of a loved one. Baines explores the anguish we feel when we cannot get either rational science (with its contradictory messages) or the `what will be, will be' attitude of the romantic to explain the splintering of our lives. The two men in the novel represent each side of the argument. One represents the alternative to the unspeakable horror that is reality, whilst the other represents the comfort of proof and rationale. Which one our main protagonist chooses will ultimately define her future and define her own beliefs. The magpie rhyme, "One for Sorrow..." etc. becomes a charm to ward off the threats of the natural world. It a gripping tale that is not without it's surprises. Leaving the reader with a satisfied ending. Baines achieves all of this with the most enigmatic prose; at times haunting, always poetic. She speaks of the modern woman's paranoia like whispers through silk. Whilst managing to embody the effortless tone of A.L. Kennedy with the talent for Magical Realism of Angela Carter. But she is also clearly a unique voice and one that I am excited to read more of. The more time I spent thinking about this novel the more I came to realise how cleverly structured it is. Not a word is wasted every sentence resonates with some supernatural power and a distant melody. All the events, no matter how minor, feed into the overall fabric of the novel. At only 123 pages it is a book to savour, to be read slowly and it will gradually imprint itself on your consciousness. This is a fantastic achievement from a fresh, noteworthy talent.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ordinary, magical things, amazing writing,
By
This review is from: Too Many Magpies (Salt Modern Fiction) (Paperback)
Domesticity never takes place upon a large or lauded stage, it is a private, secret world whose interactions and observances are held and carried forward into 'real life'. Elizabeth Baines' book places the domestic in this central, core position. 'A young mother married to a scientist fears for her children's saftey as the natural world around her becomes even more certain. Until, that is, she meets a charismatic stranger who seems to offer a different kind of power.'In this novel there is a sense of what was the title of Elizabeth Baines' short story collection 'Balancing on the edge of the world'. She subtlety elucidates the tremulous feeling and anxious vigilance of parenthood. There is the impression that threats are always close. What Baines does beautifully is to convey the otherworldliness experience of bringing up small children and their way of making our commonplace world seem bizarre. The not-quite-rightness of the eldest child Danny's behaviour is imbued with a magical and mystical quality. This is a book that made me hold my breath. Baine's gift is to do the literary equivalent of revealing what is on the inside of trouser pockets during laundry, ordinary and sacred things otherwise hidden are carefully revealed. Both these secret pockets and the heart is turned inside out on reading. The main character goes along the motorway to meet the man she looks to for direction, she stretches the domestic elastic, always travelling back again, she breaks the taboos of suburban motherhood, she risks censure but the elastic tugs constantly. She discovers what is 'really' wrong with her child and the threat is now tangible, accessible. What I found extraordinary as reader and writer was Elizabeth Baines' ability to convey so skillfully and lightly the nuances of relationships and communication, the small exchanges, the particular words of common conversation that can illuminate the character's view of each other or irreversibly wound. As a reader it was the kind of book I have longed to read, as a writer, it is the kind of book I would dream of writing. To sum up the strength and marvel of this book is to see it like a dust mote, something mundanely domestic but magical, spinning for long moments in our consciousness.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling magical narrative,
By Dot Seven (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Too Many Magpies (Salt Modern Fiction) (Paperback)
I finished Too Many Magpies in three bedtime reads (something I rarely do!). Mesmerised from start to finish. As a reader I identified with it to a (sometimes) uncomfortable degree - loved the prose and the way the elements and characters were mirrored/entwined. A unique experience, seldom read anything by a UK writer that has had so marked an effect!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
