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list price: $16.95
edition:eBook
category: Fiction
published: Sep 2011
ISBN:9781770890640
publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
imprint: Anansi International

Midsummer Night in the Workhouse

by Diana Athill

tagged: short stories (single author), contemporary women
Description

"I can remember in detail being hit by my first story one January morning in 1958." So begins literary legend Diana Athill in the preface to Midsummer Night in the Workhouse, a long-overdue collection of her short fiction, stories which were originally published in the 1950s to the 1970s.

In unsentimental though often touching prose, Athill’s young women anticipate, enjoy, or just miss out on brief sexual encounters with men met on trains, at parties -- just about anywhere they can. A cheating wife, back with her boring husband, is wracked with agonizing love for the unavailable partner of her brief fling; a writer seeks inspiration at a writers’ retreat whilst avoiding the group seducer’s invitation; a wife’s party flirtations propel her possessive husband into another woman’s bed; two fun-loving women face a sinister sexual assault during a Greek holiday; a teenager experiences enraptured detachment during her first kiss.

Beautifully written, perceptive, touching, and funny, Midsummer Night in the Workhouse is Diana Athill at her best.

About the Author
Diana Athill is one of the UK's bestselling and best-loved authors. She lives in London, England.
Editorial Reviews

... a very smooth read ... Athill is clearly a writer of intelligence.

— Rover Arts

[Diana Athill's] collected fiction writing from the 1950s through the 1970s is a handsome garland on a long career...

— Vogue

These stories are small gems ... [Athill's] legion of admirers will be pleased.

— Maclean's

I loved loved loved these short stories. They're like many-faceted gems, understated, deceptively simple and even off-hand, yet so filled with insights and real beauty.

— Nancy Pearl

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