To read a Helen Oyeyemi novel is to willingly enter a tangled wood, where the paths wander and circle, and the way out isn’t always clear, but the scenery is full of an alarming and brilliant beauty. A one-time prodigy (the British daughter of Nigerian immigrants, she published her first novel, The Icarus Girl, in her teens), Oyeyemi has always been interested in how people, especially women, arrive at their identities, a journey shaped by relationships that define and, more often than not, confine them. The fairy tale is the native language of this theme: Its princesses, stepmothers, witches, and yes, even its princes and shoemakers, are facets of a single questing psyche. But while fairy tales have a sequestered inward-looking quality, Oyeyemi’s novels are wide-ranging. She browses the globe in search of motifs and milieus; her fiction has drawn on Yoruba legends, Emily Dickinson, Cuban folklore, American race relations, and ghost stories. She currently lives in Prague, and her splendid, witty new novel, Gingerbread, has a distinctive flavor of Mitteleuropa. Continue reading at 'Slate'
[ Slate | 2019-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#fairy tale
#fairy tales
#ghost stories
Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 24/05/2011 - 08:25 Sam Harrison at Aurum has bought a biography of Cold War spy George Blake by journalist Roger Hermiston. Harrison acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for a "significant" five figure sum from Andrew Gordon at David Higham... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#figure sum
#andrew gordon
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:45 Sphere believes it has a smashing winner with the acquisition of the autobiography of Rafael Nadal, the Spanish tennis ace and current world number one. Non-fiction publishing director Adam Strange bought UK and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#rafael nadal
#anne edelstein
Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Mon, 21/02/2011 - 08:40 Man Booker winner Hilary Mantel and Susan Hill are among the writers longlisted for the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#susan hill
#writers longlisted
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 18/02/2011 - 08:18 Virago is publishing a new collection of 13 early short stories by Daphne du Maurier, including five discovered by a Cornish bookseller and du Maurier enthusiast. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |