I am pleased to be on the tour for this lovely short story collection.
Falling in love with this collection:
‘I couldn’t sleep that night; our conversation was like a trapped bird flying around inside my head. The next morning, I texted to say I wouldn’t be coming back. I lied about having to return to my country to nurse a sick relative. I couldn’t bear to see my story mirrored in his eyes, and to see what we never had. I knew he’d understand.’
Women and Love is a thought-provoking collection of seventeen tightly woven tales about the power of love, all its trials and complications, and the shattered lives it can leave in its wake.
The stories explore a huge variety of sorts of love surrounding women in wildly differing settings, and features an unforgettable cast including GPs, burglars, inmates, emigrant cleaners, carers, young professionals, and many more. Navigating heavy themes, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ experiences, including gender dysphoria and searching for a sperm donor, the stories leave the reader burning with indignation, full of empathy and wonder.
Bobs and Books honest review:
This looks at women and various relationships with an incredibly new lens and focus. This is so much more than your stereotypical marriages or traditional relationships and explores many different themes, complications and the true complexity of people in life.
The author perfectly encapsulates so much of this and winds it all into one superb collection.
There are some amazing surprises in this read and the reader takes you to places you never imagined it would go. Its dark, daring and delightful.
I never think its fair to discuss favourite stories in collections, some endings I preferred to others, but every story is unmissable to read in its own right.
About the author:
A writer from the west of Ireland, Miriam Burke’s short stories have been widely published in anthologies and journals, including The Manchester Review, Litro
Magazine, Fairlight Shorts, The Honest Ulsterman, Bookanista and Writers’ Forum. She has a PhD in Psychology, and before becoming a writer she worked for many years as a Clinical Psychologist in London hospitals and GP practices. Women and Love is her debut collection. Resource links: Author reading on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cxS6jL_kC4 Author’s website: https://miriamburkeauthor.com
Out Now.
Purchase links: Renard Press: https://renardpress.com/books/women-and-love/ Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/women-and-love/miriam-burke/9781913724818 Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/women-and-love/9781913724818 Blackwells: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9781913724818
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