The winner of this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was announced last night as Aharon Appelfeld, with his Holocaust novel, Blooms of Darkness (Alma Books); translated from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green.

Appelfeld’s novel, which is based loosely on his own experiences of the Holocaust as a boy, was the overall winner in a shortlist of six titles which included great Italian novelist, Umberto Eco and Yan Lianke’s banned-in-China novel, Dream of Ding Village (Constable and Robinson).

Aharon Appelfeld, who at eighty-years-old becomes the oldest winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, was in London to collect the winner’s cheque of £10,000 which he shares equally with his translator Jeffrey Green. Taking to the podium at the event in the Royal Institute of British Architects, Appelfeld delivered the following statement:

Blooms of Darkness is a work of fiction that includes my personal experience during the Second World War. I wanted to explore the darkest places of human behaviour and to show that even there, generosity and love can survive; that humanity and love can overcome cruelty and brutality. It is a joy to win the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize alongside Jeffrey M Green – he is a highly professional translator and I love his work.

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – for which the Booktrust act as custodian – is a UK Prize awarded annually to a work of contemporary fiction in translation by a living author, which has been published during the previous year. The judges for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize were Boyd Tonkin, (Literary Editor of The Independent), Nick Barley (Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival), Xiaolu Guo (novelist, short story writer and filmmaker), Hephzibah Anderson (broadcaster, freelance critic and feature writer) and Jon Cook (Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of East Anglia; Chair of Arts Council England, East).

On their choice of winner Prize judge, Hephzibah Anderson comments:

Jeffrey M Green’s incantatory translation from the Hebrew does ample justice to a novel that meditates on the imagination, memory and language itself. As the relationship between Hugo and Mariana evolves, this deceptively simple narrative does something extraordinary, carrying the reader to a liminal territory in which deep sensuality exists alongside unfathomable brutality.

For further details, including a brief bio on winning author Aharon Appelfeld, please visit the Booktrust website.

The nominees for this year’s Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award have been announced, revealing a record breaking longlist of 77 short story collections from 17 different countries.

Despite a €10,000 drop in the overall winner’s prize purse this year (down from €35,000 to €25,000), the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award remains one of the world’s richest literary prizes for the short story form. Open to short story collections published for the first time in English anywhere in the world between July 2011 and June 2012 (translations into English also qualify), the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award longlist for 2012 is as follows (links wherever possible, lead directly to the publisher’s product page for each collection. Note also, that the above cover images are also hyperlinked):

• Steve Almond, USA, God Bless America (Lookout Books)
• A. J. Ashworth, UK, Somewhere Else, or Even Here (Salt Publishing)
• Diane Awerbuck, South Africa, Cabin Fever (Umuzi)
• Lou Beach, USA, 420 Characters (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Frank Bill, USA, Crimes in Southern Indiana (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Will Boast, USA, Power Ballads (University of Iowa Press)
• Greg Bottoms, USA, Swallowing the Past (Texas Review Press)
• Laura Boudreau, Canada, Suitable Precautions (Biblioasis)
• Shannon Cain, USA, The Necessity of Certain Behaviors (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Neil Campbell, UK, Pictures from Hopper (Salt Publishing)
• Eileen Casey, Ireland, Snow Shoes (Arlen House)
• O Thiam Chin, Singapore, The Rest of Your Life and Everything That Comes With It (ZI Publications)
• Charles Christian, UK, This is the Quickest Way Down (Proxima)
• Dave Chua, Singapore, The Beating (Ethos Books)
• K. L. Cook, USA, Love Songs for the Quarantined (Willow Springs Editions)
• Mary Costello, Ireland, The China Factory (The Stinging Fly Press)
• Buffy Cram, Canada, Radio Belly (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Eugene Cross, USA, Fires of Our Choosing (Dzanc Books)
• Don DeLillo, USA, The Angel Esmeralda (Picador)
• Stanley Donwood, UK, Household Worms (Tangent Books)
• Catherine Eisner, UK, Listen Close to Me (Salt Publishing)
• Nathan Englander, USA, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Matthew Firth, Canada, Shag Carpet Action (Anvil Press)
• Órfhlaith Foyle, Ireland, Somewhere in Minnesota (Arlen House)
• Matthew Francis, UK, Singing a Man to Death (Cinnamon Press)
• David Galef, USA, My Date With Neanderthal Woman (Dzanc Books)
• Dagoberto Gilb, USA, Before the End, After the Beginning (Grove Press)
• Namita Gokhale, India, The Habit of Love (Penguin)
• Lorna Goodison, Jamaica, By Love Possessed (HarperCollins)
• Daniel Griffin, Canada, Stopping for Strangers (Véhicule Press)
• Tessa Hadley, UK, Married Love (Jonathan Cape)
• Sarah Hall, UK, The Beautiful Indifference (Faber & Faber)
• Anjum Hasan, India, Difficult Pleasures (Penguin)
• Tania Hershman, UK, My Mother Was an Upright Piano (Tangent Books)
• Keith Jardim, Trinidad and Tobago, Near Open Water (Peepal Tree Press)
• James Martyn Joyce, Ireland, What’s not Said (Arlen House)
• Suzanne Kamata, USA, The Beautiful One Has Come (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing)
• Jackie Kay, UK, Reality, Reality (Picador)
• Etgar Keret, Israel, Suddenly, a Knock in the Door (Chatto & Windus)
• Fiona Kidman, New Zealand, The Trouble With Fire (Random House)
• Zoe Lambert, UK, The War Tour (Comma Press)
• Krys Lee, USA – South Korea, Drifting House (Faber & Faber)
• Adam Levin, USA, Hot Pink (McSweeney’s)
• Peter Markus, USA, We Make Mud (Dzanc Books)
• Rowena Mcdonald, UK, Smoked Meat (Flambard Press)
• Jon McGregor, UK, This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You (Bloomsbury)
• K. R. Meera, India, Yellow Is the Colour of Longing (Penguin)
• Ana Menendez, USA, Adios, Happy Homeland! (Grove Press)
• Clemens Meyer, Germany, All the Lights (And Other Stories)
• Kevin Moffett, USA, Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events (HarperCollins)
• Jim Mullarkey, Ireland, And (Doire Press)
• Sabina Murray, Australia, Tales of the New World (Grove Press)
• Stuart Nadler, USA, The Book of Life (Picador)
• Nuala Ní Chonchúir, Ireland, Mother America (New Island)
• Éllis Ní Dhuibne, Ireland, Shelter of Neighbours (Blackstaff Press)
• Joyce Carol Oates, USA, The Corn Maiden (Grove Press)
• Jamie O’Connell, Ireland, Some Sort of Beauty (Bradshaw Books)
• Rajesh Parameswaran, USA, I Am an Executioner (Bloomsbury)
• Cassandra Parkin, UK, New World Fairy Tales (Salt Publishing)
• Lucia Perillo, USA, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Dave Pescod, UK, All Embracing (Route)
• Alice Petersen, Canada, All the Voices Cry (Biblioasis)
• Stephanie Powell Watts, USA, We Are Taking Only What We Need (BkMk Press)
• Wayne Price, UK, Furnace (Freight Books)
• Stephanie Reents, USA, The Kissing List (Hogarth)
• Rebecca Rosenblum, Canada, The Big Dream (Biblioasis)
• Pamela Ryder, USA, A Tendency to Be Gone (Dzanc Books)
• Nathalie Serber, USA, Shout Her Lovely Name (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Johanna Skibsrud, Canada, This Will Be Difficult to Explain (W. W. Norton & Co./Hamish Hamilton)
• Yasuko Thanh, Canada, Floating Like the Dead (McClelland & Stewart)
• Lysley Tenorio, USA – Philippines, Monstress (HarperCollins)
• Laura Maylene Walter, USA, Living Arrangements (BkMk Press)
• Diane Williams, USA, Vicky Swanky Is a Beauty (McSweeney’s)
• D. W. Wilson, Canada, Once You Break a Knuckle (Bloomsbury/Hamish Hamilton)
• Lucy Wood, UK, Diving Belles (Bloomsbury)
• Barbara Unkovic, Croatia, Moon Walking (Old Line Publishing)
• Dina Zaman, Malaysia, King of the Sea (Silverfish Books)

The shortlist for this year’s Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, which will be decided on by a jury of three (poet James Harpur, novelist and short story writer Mary Leland, and literary programmer and short story promoter Ann Luttrel), will be announced in June, with the overall winner being announced in July. The winner will also be required to attend the Cork International Short Story Festival in September, where he/she will receive their cheque.

I said yesterday that if the judging panel were in jovial mood, then Kevin Barry would take this year’s Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award Well, it was announced earlier this evening at the Oxford Literary Festival that he did indeed take the top prize, and the £30,000 winner’s cheque.

The folks here at RobAroundBooks i.e. me – a staff of one, couldn’t be happier. Beer Trip to Llandudno is a wonderfully entertaining and warming story, and Barry wholeheartedly deserves to win.

Tweeting live from the event, @ShortStoryAward told us that Barry’s acceptance speech was ‘funny, charming and humble’, which is exactly what I, and anyone who’s ever met the man, would expect his speech to be.

Speaking of Barry’s winning story, Prize judge Hanif Kureishi had the following to say:

It’s a beautifully constructed piece of writing that says something fresh about how men find comfort, support and humour in each other’s company. This is an astonishing story that is both daringly original and full of heart.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, news of Barry’s victory quickly reached family in Ireland. His charming niece Siobhán told me that there was ‘a lot of jumping up and down going on’ at her home in Limerick. I foresee many a party happening in Ireland over the next few days .

Of course, with every silver lining there’s a cloud, and my heart really goes out to the five other shortlisted authors who walked away from this year’s #STEFG12 empty-handed (well not exactly empty-handed, they each receive a cheque for £1,000 along with the thrill of being on the shortlist, while having their stories published in the anthology). If you read my reviews of each shortlisted short story, then you’ll know just how highly I regard every one of them, so it pains me to see any of these authors ‘lose’.

My congratulations to Kevin Barry then, and my commiserations to the five runners-up. I thank you all again (and by all I include the Sunday Times, EFG Private Bank and Booktrust) for giving me, and many other short story fans, a month to remember.

The first person I thought of when I saw the subject for this week’s Bookshelf of the Week was Michel de Montaigne, the celebrated sixteenth-century French nobleman, who is credited as being the founder of the modern personal essay. If the man were alive today in his library, which was situated in a corner tower on the grounds of his château in the Périgord, then this is what I think it might look like.

The in-built bookcases in this library room are exquisite. I love how they mould to the circular shape of the room so perfectly, with the windows forming part of the integrated design. I adore the antique desk too, it fits the room perfectly. The only thing I wonder about however, is where the little stepladder leads to? Could this be the only entrance and exit to the room? If it is then I’m sure Montaigne – given his love for solitude – would approve.

So what of the great man’s tower, and the real library room in which he scribed his famous Essais? Well, the Château de Montaigne itself was extensively damaged by fire in 1885 (it has since been restored), but the tower thankfully remained untouched. It stands today, and many people visit it, but alas Montaigne’s library no longer houses any books, or indeed any bookshelves (the majority of the surviving collection of around 100 books are now housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Bibliothèque municipale, Bordeaux). The room does however still stand as a testament to a great man, and if one casts one eyes skywards, then one is able to gaze in awe at the the scholarly Greek and Latin inscriptions that Montaigne had had burnt on to the rafters.

I shall leave the final word to Montaigne himself, who describes his library and his interactions with his books, in his Essais. This extract is taken from the essay Of Three Kind of Association, found in the Everyman’s Library edition of The Complete Works of Michele de Montaigne:

When at home I turn aside a little more often to my library…There I leaf through now one book, now another, without order and without plan, by disconnected fragments. One moment I muse, another moment I set down or dictate, walking back and forth, these fancies of mine that you see here.

The shape of my library is round, the only flat side being the part needed for my table and chair; and curving around me it presents at a glance all my books, arranged in five rows of shelves on all sides. It offers rich and free views in three directions, and sixteen paces of free space in diameter.

Can I close this week’s Bookshelf of the Week by recommending a further book to you? If you’re searching for an accessible and entertaining biography on Michel de Montaigne, then please look no further than Sarah Bakewell’s most excellent How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer (Chatto & Windus). It’s flawless, and I have this book alone to thank, for sparking my own interest in Montaigne.

…then please make sure it’s one from the Bloomsbury ‘Year of the Short Story’ Sampler (provided you haven’t read it already of course), created to give a taste of each of the five collections that Bloomsbury are publishing during the first five months of 2012, in celebration of their ‘Year of the Short Story’.

I’ve only just managed to get around to consuming the five short story offerings myself after reporting on it a couple of weeks ago, but let me tell you folks, if you don’t read at least one of the stories in this sampler as a bare minimum, then you’re missing out on something pretty special. It’s stands as a good example of why there’s so much to love about the short fiction form.

Before reading the sampler, I thought I would enjoy maybe two or three of the featured stories – with one of them perhaps being an absolute stand out – but what I didn’t expect was that I’d love every single one of stories, and to a level where not one of them stood out as being anything less than what I call ‘top drawer’, which is high accolade indeed.

Yes, I know I have a reverence for the short story form, and that I tend wag my tail a little too furiously for a lot of short stories on RobAroundBooks, but I’m not so blinded by veneration that I declare my love for every one I read. Thing is, I got from this 120-page sampler a 100% positive short story reading experience, and I never would have anticipated that. So, to hopefully encourage you to at least read a story or two, here’s a brief rundown on my thoughts for each:

* ‘Diving Belles’ by Lucy Wood (from the collection Diving Belles, published 19th January): The collection that this story is from is listed as having tales in which ‘Cornish folklore slips into everyday life’. ‘Diving Belles’ is a prime example. Still hopelessly grieving the loss of her husband, Iris uses a generous gift from a thoughtful neighbour, to test the myth that the dead can be reclaimed from the sea.

I love this story, not only because of Wood’s beautiful prose and the way in which she uses it to describe things so vividly, but also because of how successfully she manages to knit the theme of ancient folklore into her story. Inventive, magical, haunting and surreal, ‘Diving Belles’ is a truly effecting story, made all the more so by Wood’s equally affecting voice.

***

* ‘We Wave And Call’ by John McGregor (from the collection, This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, published 2nd February): One of the things I admire most about McGregor – and it’s clearly evident in this story; a story which follows a swimmer as he unknowingly gets increasingly out of his depth – is the way in which he employs such a richness of detail to his prose that he is able to grab a hold of a reader’s sensory system and pull him/her into his story world. We Wave and Call is set in and around the sea in a warm climate, and while reading it I most certainly felt the waves gently lapping at my body, and the heat of the sun slowly burning the back of my neck (and no, that wasn’t my reading lamp).

But of course a story is much more than a simple tool for engaging the senses, and We Wave and Call – like so many other of McGregor’s fictional creations – stands as an example of just how accomplished this writer is, in being able to deliver a storyline that’s engaging, original, tense and wholly memorable. It’s rare to find a story which is presented in second person point of view i.e. one that employs the use of ‘you’ so that the reader becomes the character (for example, ‘you hold out your hands, seeing how pale they look in the water’) but McGregor manages to wield this difficult narrative mode magnificently, even with the added ‘hassle’ of alternating between past and present tense. We Wave and Call is beautifully crafted, and if it stands as an indication of how good the rest of McGregor’s newest collection will be, then we’re in for a mighty fine treat.

***

* ‘Homesick’ by Roshi Fernando (from the collection Homesick, published 1st March): It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and family and friends are gathered in South London at the home of Sri Lankan’s Victor and Nandini. As New Year approaches and the house gets fuller and everyone begins to relax more, the adults reminiscence downstairs about family and former lives, while the children deal with teenage politics and suchlike, in the bedrooms upstairs.

What I adore most about this story is the richness of culture that pulsates from it. It’s clear that author Fernando has Sri Lankan heritage, and she bestows all of her cultural knowledge onto the reader, as a welcome and glorious gift. In the space of this one short story – which is beautifully written – we learn, amongst other things, just how important families are, how crucial it is for an ‘outsider’ to fit in, and how much pull one’s homeland can have on a person’s heart. The story does have a cast of thousands (maybe not that many, but you get my drift), and it does take a bit of effort to keep up with everyone at first (my advice to read every short story twice definitely rings true here ), but the effort is certainly worth it, not least because the stories in this collection are apparently linked, and I’ve feeling that we’re going to meet many of the cast again in the future. (I certainly hope so because ‘Homesick’ has some delightfully lovable characters i.e. Victor and Preethi).

***

* ‘The Dead Roads’ by D. W. Wilson (from the collection Once You Break A Knuckle, published 12th April): Although this is a debut collection, I’m wholly familiar with this gritty and honest tale from Canadian writer, Wilson. It was the story that won him the BBC National Short Story Award last year, and although I first read this one back in September, it’s long stuck with me. The Dead Roads follows three friends as they set off on a road trip across Canada. There’s tension from the outset as the narrator’s friend (Animal Brooks), begins hitting on his girlfriend, Vic. The relationship between the three only becomes more strained when they find themselves in the back-of-beyond town of Shellyoak in the Canadian Rockies, where they are forced to camp overnight in the most unusual of locations.

What is it about The Dead Roads that has stuck with me? Well, first and foremost it’s the story’s characters. Within this trio there is real depth and complexity, and an intrigue that really holds the reader’s attention. Factor in a more bizarre and complex character who comes in later on in the story, and the whole reading experience is one that the reader is unlikely to forget.

Then there’s the profound level of tension that has been imbued into this story. It’s omnipresent yet it always simmers just below the surface, and this has the affect of making the reader feel as though something’s going to blow at any moment. You don’t come out of the other end of a story like this without it having some kind of lasting effect.

So in the space of one story Wilson has shown me that he is potentially a master of character and mood. He’s also given me a strong impression of the ruggedness of the Canadian landscape. I’ve a hope that the rest of Wilson’s collection is going to build on that impression, and that I’m going to meet even more characters that are going to live with me outside the book.

***

* ‘Demons’ by Rajesh Parameswaran (from the collection I Am An Executioner, published 10th May: Convinced that she is the one responsible for bringing devastating misfortune upon her husband, Savitri seeks solace for her actions; firstly by looking inside herself, and then through reaching out to others. It soon becomes clear however, just how alone in her grief she really is.

Steeped in Indian culture and myth, this is an incredible tale from Parameswaran, that touches on so many themes, without ever feeling dense or overbearing. Loneliness, grief, guilt and cultural tension are all explored, as is the immigration experience. It sounds like a lot to pack in to one short story, but Parameswaran has managed to do so magnificently, with a prowess in storytelling that is both delicate and hard-hitting at the same time. The collection as a whole is built around the theme of love, and ‘Demons’ explores the subject in a way that I find profound and utterly remarkable. I really am excited about the prospect of reading more from this author.

***

Now dear reader, don’t let me leave you thinking that I’m getting a bit carried away here in judging five collections on the basis of having read one story from each of them. I’m well aware that the purpose of Bloomsbury’s short story sampler is to pique interest in their forthcoming collections (Diving Belles has actually already been published), and that they would have chosen particular stories to show each collection in its best light. But the fact remains, just from reading a single story from each of these collections I see real potential in every one of these authors (I already knew the potential of McGregor and Wilson of course), and that is a rare and exciting thing.

Ultimately, the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it in its entirety of course – and I’ll reserve total judgement until I’ve had a chance to consume each ‘pudding’ – but as a starting point this sampler turns out to be one tasty appetiser. I hope after reading it, that you’ll feel the same. If you do manage to work your way through some of these stories (and you’d damn well better ), then please come back and tell me what you thought of them, because I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So, the headline news at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in London last night may have been the (deserved) victory of Andrew Miller who took the title of Costa Book of the Year with his novel Pure (Sceptre), but the bigger news for me – and every short story fan across the UK and beyond – was the announcement that Costa is expanding their Book Awards in 2012, to include a new short story category.

A cause for celebration? Absolutely! As many of us know, the short story form remains woefully ignored in the UK – at least when it comes to the mainstream literary prizes (awards in the UK such as the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the BBC National Short Story Award, the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award and the Bristol Short Story Prize certainly keep a bright torch burning) – so putting it in a spotlight as bright and as public as the Costa Book Awards can only give the short story a much needed boost and elevation (some quite shockingly still see the short story as a lesser literary form), will which surely (hopefully) encourage more readers to embrace the glory of short fiction. I think I can see exciting times ahead.

I should be quick to add however, that it’s not all ‘shout it from the rooftop’ news for short fiction fans. Costa may well be putting a short story category in their Book Awards this year, but it will not be allowed to compete with the other five categories (First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book), for the overall Book of the Year prize. This is disappointing to hear, but then again how could it compete against the others because this new short story category will only consider single short stories, rather than story collections or anthologies.

Some would say that this a bad decision for Costa to make. I was speaking to a respected publicist earlier today who said that publishers would probably prefer it if the category were open to collections. I agree, to a point (especially if it meant that short stories could compete for the overall prize), but let’s not forget that a short story is a single entity; an encapsulated whole, and it should perhaps be judged as such (they’re certainly judged that way for the most part on RobAroundBooks).

Let’s also not forget how short story consumption is currently evolving. As time progresses and our move towards e-readers becomes more widespread, so the way in which we read short stories seems to be changing also. And just like the ‘iTunes Revolution’ where we began to favour individual music tracks over albums, we seem to be heading in a similar direction with short stories, where we have more of a desire to consume individual offerings rather than entire collections. If this turns out to be the case then Costa have made absolutely the right decision.

Regardless, I simply applaud Costa for taking such a definitive and just step in the right direction with regards to short fiction, and for doing so in 2012 – the year designated as ‘Year of the Short Story’. And it may only be January but there already seems to be a buzz like I’ve never seen before around the reading world with regards to short stories. What with Bloomsbury embracing the form, and new short story collections on the way from ‘masters’ such as Etgar Keret (Suddenly, A Knock on the Door (Vintage); published 23rd February) and Kevin Barry (Dark Lies the Island (Jonathan Cape); published 5th April), some are even going as far as to suggest that we may be on the verge of a short story renaissance. I certainly hope that we are, to the point where I’m wishing with all of my heart and soul. Imagine bearing witness to a renaissance, and a short fiction one at that? I can’t think of anything that would thrill me more.

Over to you: As you can tell, this is a subject that’s very close to my heart and I’d love to hear your own thoughts on it. Do you think Costa are wasting their time in introducing a short story category into their Book Awards? Do you think it will it encourage more readers to pick up short stories? I’d love to hear your thoughts, whatever they are.

I used to adhere to a strict rule when reading short fiction – never read more than one or two stories in a single day. This was a rule I stuck doggedly to, because I felt that reading any more than this would cause everything to meld in the mind; plot lines would mix together, characters would cross the threshold from one story into another, and it would all become a bit like an out-of-control Facebook party, in my head. Thankfully, I’ve now dropped this notion, and I can now read up to a dozen shorts on a good day (a very very good day mind you), and that’s because I’ve found that it is possible to keep short stories separate from one another in the brain, especially when one is taking brief notes while reading (I’ll share more on my short story note-taking in a future post). However, this is still one crucial short story reading rule that I would never drop, and it’s the most precious short story reading tip that I’m ever likely to share with you:

Now, this advice may sound somewhat counter productive given that the short story is lauded as being the most suitable literary form to fit in with the hectic pace of 21st Century living. However, I cannot stress enough just how valuable it is to read through a short story more than once. Aside from the bonus of gaining retention, the reader is more likely to understand a story’s true message if he/she engages with it more than once, especially when a short story’s meaning is usually more subtly embedded than it is in a longer work of fiction. There’s also the matter of detail, and so much of it can be lost to the reader who simply sweeps through a short story in a single sitting.

Of course I’m not saying that one can’t enjoy and understand a short story when it’s consumed in a singular bite, but I believe that the real value and understanding of a story can only come from reading it more than once, especially when one has established a ‘route map’ for it. Route map? Well, I liken reading short stories to a tourist visiting an unknown city for the first time (which very much matches my philosophy that every book/story is a journey). On the first day the visitor is so overwhelmed and so focussed on navigating from A to B that he misses out on most of the detail that surrounds him. Sure, the tourist will spot the landmarks and key features, but everything else will be lost on him.

Compare this to the tourist who travels the same route in the city on the following day, when a mental ‘route map’ has been established in his head. This tourist is immediately more familiar with his surroundings, and as a consequence he becomes calmer, more observant and significantly more confident. In this state he begins to venture deeper, and to notice more detail as he goes along. He is becoming more comfortable with his surroundings, and this in turn makes him more receptive to that which surrounds him.

I’ve found exactly the same thing to be true when rereading short stories. When I reread a short story I become instantly more familiar and comfortable in its surroundings, which in turn, just like the tourist, makes me more receptive to that which is going on around me. Almost subconsciously I begin to notice the smaller detail. Familiarity increases my confidence, and it gives me the encouragement to venture deeper. I also become more questioning, more able to read between the lines and more likely to diverge in my thoughts while reading. The result? I tend to come out the other side having soaked up most of the detail of a story, while feeling as though I’ve connected with it on a more sublime level. I feel fulfilled (especially if it’s a good story), my appetite is sated, and I feel as though I’ve given the story the level of focus and attention it deserves. All this, simply because I went back to the story and reread it.

So I invite you dear reader to invest a little more time in getting to know your short stories better (especially if you’ve come to the end of one and don’t really understand what it was about). They may be deemed by many as being quick throwaway bite-sized literary nuggets, but I urge you to reread your short stories as often as possible. I’m not suggesting that you dive back into every one – we are after all living in this hectic twenty first-century – but definitely reread as many short stories as you can. By doing so you will discover the true power of the form, and your soul will be nurtured in ways that you never thought possible. It all begins with the simple step of rereading.

And of course when it comes to the short stories of the greats i.e. Hemingway, Maupassant, Carver, Trevor, Chekhov, O’Connor (Flannery and Frank), Wolff etc. then rereading is an absolute must. You should trample through the creations of these short story masters so often that you can do it blindfolded, because in doing so you will become truly Enlightened. You have my word on that.

Book events with authors normally follow the same old routine – the author’s introduced, the author reads, the author answers questions – but at the West Port Book Festival on Sunday and The Short Story Hour, featuring David Gaffney and Hannah McGill, the assembled audience of around 30 was given exactly what it said on the tin – an hour of short story reading, and I’ve got to say, it was refreshing and delicious in equal measure. Hosted in the cosy confines of Peter Bell Books, where the aroma of antiquarian books never fails to arrest the senses (in a good way) the audience was subjected to delight, thrill and shock (read on) with stories from two very different authors.

Hannah McGill, former artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Review Show regular, has had many of her short stories anthologised and is currently working on her first novel. She was up first reading her short story, Amity and Ray, and I’ve got to say, based on this story alone because I’ve never read her before, that I adore McGill’s prose. It’s packed with emotion and is very literary (not in a stuffy way); the kind of writing that has a deep down affect on the soul.

Following a round of cakes (I’m not kidding), the floor was taken over by David Gaffney. And If McGill is profoundly literary in her storytelling, then Gaffney is the complete polar opposite. He writes primarily to entertain, often with poignancy, and that much is clear both from the type of stories that he writes, and his style of delivery. A specialist in micro-fiction, Gaffney has had three collections published to date – Sawn-Off Tales (a firm favourite here at RobAroundBooks), Aromabingo and his latest The Half-Life of Songs – and a novel, Never Never. He opened his reading with the story Cica Lights, before moving on to Happy Place, Little Jan (scroll down to ‘excerpt from book’), Floydy, The Lost Language of Hairgrips (scroll), and Music Like ours Never Dies (scroll).

There was an Arrrgghhh moment when Gaffney couldn’t get his laptop to work; a somewhat disappointing moment because he was going to tell a story via Powerpoint (he created a unique story series in Powerpoint for EdFest 2009 called Destroy Powerpoint), and I was hugely intrigued to see it because I love innovation in storytelling, and partly because I wanted to find out if it was on the same lines as the Powerpoint chapter in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit to the Goon Squad. On the bright side however, it gave David the time to read a few more of his flash creations, but not before the floor was turned back over to Hannah for another of her stories.

I think Hannah in some ways regretted her story choice, Dorothy Pugh. The tale’s a little explicit and Hannah was squirming in her seat somewhat while reading it, especially when the subject turned to penises. A red-faced Hannah admitted that she had never read the story in public before but actually, I’m glad she did. It’s a thoroughly entertaining and well written tale, which comes much humour and the same underlying sense of profundity (and to honest it’s not really that rude). So bravo to Hannah for picking it.

Back over to David who finished the session with another quick fire round of micro-fiction. He started with a couple of stories – Delivered by Sharks (scroll) and The History Brush – which come from his newest collection but which were originally from a project called 23 Stops to Hull. David closed with another two from his Sawn-Off Tales collection, The Kids are Alright and The World Won’t Listen.

And so a wonderfully engaging story hour came to an end. On the face of it it looks like David had more floor time than Hannah, but that’s not the case. Almost every one of David’s tales can be devoured in under a minute. Regardless, I doubt any of the audience exited the bookshop other than completely satisfied. Everyone certainly left looking a lot happier than when they came in (including me); a testament to the storytelling prowess of two fresh and invigorating writers.

My thanks to Hannah and David for putting some colour in to a grey Edinburgh Sunday, and to the West Port Book Festival and Peter Bell Books for making the event happen.

Thirsty for more? Then head on over to David Gaffney’s website, or Hannah McGill’s blog, where both authors have served up some free short story reading goodness. How kind of both of them.

The Edinburgh Book Festival may be the biggest literary event of the year in Scotland’s capital, but don’t think for one minute that outside of August Edinburgh is bereft of any decent book events. There’s plenty going on all year round (it is a UNESCO City of Literature after all), and a mouse with a big voice (it’s not quite a roar but it’s getting there), has let itself be heard over the past four days in Edinburgh’s historical West Port; home to nine independent book shops (a quite remarkable amount given the small size of the area) and one rather competent bookbinder.

Now in its fourth year, The West Port Book Festival is going from strength to strength, and this year the festival, whose events are always free, was stronger than ever. Unfortunately I could only make two of the multitude of the events on offer, the first of which I was incredibly excited about, an audience with Robert Shearman.

If you don’t know who Rob Shearman is then you really should do. Not only is he an exceptionally talented and prolific short story writer – having now produced three short story collections to date (Tiny Deaths, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical and his latest Everyone’s Just So So Special) – he’s also a theatrical playwright and soon to be debut novelist. Currently, London-based Shearman is also acting in the role of writer-in-residence at Napier University, where he advises students enrolled on the university’s MA course in creative writing. Shearman is perhaps best known however, for his stint as a Dr. Who writer. He’s the man who wrote the highly popular Daleks episode in 2005, which saw the Doctor’s deadliest enemy reintroduced into the TV series. As such this has brought Shearman huge recognition, and something of a cult following.

So on to the event itself which was staged at the newest bookshop to open its doors at the West Port, Pulp Fiction. Chaired by Stuart Kelly, literary editor of Scotland on Sunday (always a bonus because Stuart is an exceptional literary host, as proven many times now at EdBookFest), the venue was certainly compact and bijou (although more spacious than many bookshops), but oh so warm and inviting. And when Shearman took to the floor to deliver a lively reading from his newest short story collection, Everyone’s Just So So Special (Big Finish Books), the place just got warmer, and remained so throughout the entirety of the event.

If you’ve ever read any of Rob Shearman’s stories then you will know that they are unique, thoughtful, often dark and, more often than not, liberally doused in humour. The man is exactly like his stories (although probably not so dark ). Shearman gave an animated and theatrical reading of his story, Coming in to Land, which was every bit as good as any live performance as I’ve seen from a writer. Anyone having never read Shearman before would be tempted to go and pick him up straight away (the books not the man), based solely on the strength of this reading alone. And I’m willing to bet that the assembled crowd of around 30 – all of who seemed equally titillated and entertained by Shearman – would agree with me.

Following Shearman’s reading Kelly opened up with questions, first asking Shearman what it was he brought from his theatre writing background into his prose writing. Shearman responded by talking about Alan Ayckbourn and his dictum that one can write as creatively and as cleverly as one wants for theatre, around any theme, provided one gives the audience a reason to come back after the interval. This is a philosophy that Shearman likes to apply to his prose writing. “In theatre you try to do anything you can to not make the audience feel bored”, said Shearman. “I try to apply the same idea to my prose writing, to hopefully not bore people; to have every paragraph do a job. If it doesn’t have a job then cut it because that’s when people say they’ve had enough of a story and throw it away.”

Noting how performance-enriched his reading was, Kelly asked Shearman about the transition from dialogue to monologue and how he invested a sense of personality. Shearman revealed that although he went to drama school he was never really good enough. He’d resigned himself to the fact that he would never be more than ‘stunningly mediocre’. As a consequence and because of a bad stammer (which he still claims to still have even though it’s not in the least bit apparent), Shearman admitted that he doesn’t like performing much. At first he always tried to avoid it, until he realised that he was being called on more and more as a prose writer to give readings. Standing up to his responsibilities, Shearman wrote particular stories as performance pieces, which he would perform comfortably (provided his wife wasn’t there. Coming in to Land is one of those stories.

Considering many of his stories to be quite dark, Kelly asked Shearman if black humour was a necessary part of telling these stories. “I think of them when I write them as funny stories,” responds Shearman. “They always start for me as being funny ‘what ifs’ and as I write them the humour becomes more blackened sometimes. They begin as gags but then I consider ‘gags’ to be too flimsy a reason for writing them and I look around to find another reason for writing them, and often the horror thing comes into them, but from the other way around.”

Of course it’s difficult to ignore and Kelly eventually brought up the thing that Shearman is most noted for – his writing for Dr. Who and the episode which brought the Daleks back to cult TV series. Mentioning that a radio station had suggested that when he dies he will probably be given a Dalek tombstone, Kelly asked Shearman if the whole Dr. Who thing was an albatross around his neck. “Once in a while,” Shearman responded, “but you can’t knock it. It was a fun job. I’m proud of it I really am, and my first book was published in part because the publishers believed I had a big following after the Dalek episode.”

For me, Shearman isn’t about Dr. Who or even science fiction or horror. As I said earlier this man is an extraordinary short story writer and if this thoroughly entertaining hour showed me anything it was that Robert Shearman is as cordial and as engaging as his stories are original. This is a man of comedy and sharp-wit and that much came though during this event. It was a pleasure to be in the man’s company, and I thank West Port Book Festival and the Pulp Fiction bookshop for making that possible.

To finish, although it’s not from the West Port Book Festival (there’s an official audio podcast of the event pending, I’ll update when it’s available), I bring you a recording of another event in which Rob Shearman reads the same story, ‘Coming in to Land’. This was recorded earlier this year as part of the Chiaroscuro Reading Series, in Toronto. Enjoy:

If people can have literary tattoos then why can’t literature have people tattoos?

My ‘Cover Love’ feature returns to RobAroundBooks this month, with one of the finest looking set of books to have graced the bookshop bookshelves in recent months. This newly released limited edition set of titles from Penguin Books is called the Penguin Ink collection. It comprises of six of Penguin UK’s older bestselling titles, which have had special covers designed for them by renowned tattoo artists around the world. The titles and associated cover artists are as follows (links lead to publisher page for each title, and the tattoo artist’s own website):

• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Russ Abbott.
• Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Valerie Vargas.
• The Accidental by Ali Smith. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Judd Ripley.
• The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Han van der Sluys.
• The Book of Dave by Will Self. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Duncan X.
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Lynn Akura.

I adore these covers, not least because they’re bold and bright and very much in the traditional ‘old school’ design. And yet in every one of these ‘book tattoos’ there’s also a subtle tribute to the book that each one relates to. They’re beautiful and wholly unique, and I think that every one of these covers stands as a testament to the skill and creativity of the tattoo artist who created it. I’ve long admired the tattooist as being something of a master craftsman/craftswoman (I have a bunch of tattoos myself), and I applaud Penguin for putting these ‘masters’ on a pedestal, and giving their artwork pride of place on the cover of six of their most celebrated novels.

And if you’re thirsty for more tattoo-inspired cover loving goodness dear reader, then you’ll be pleased to know that Penguin US have also commissioned their own set of covers, featuring a whole different set of titles and six more ‘kick ass’ tattoo artists from around the globe. Go check ‘em out.

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‘Cover Love’ offers me the indulgence of being able to push aside the old adage of ‘never judging a book by its cover’ for once, and to celebrate with a passion my lust for book cover design.