Lying Together

by Gaynor Arnold

Overview

Sparkling with sympathy, style and wit, this debut collection is populated with characters looking for new life. The two desperately optimistic lovers of the title story head out on the road in the first days of release from a rehab clinic. A childless wife is drawn back into the orbit of her charismatic old flame when her best friend asks for her help. In a wartime cafe, a waitress takes a passionate interest in a bookish and haunted stranger.

Stretching effortlessly from Paris to inner-city Birmingham, from the present day to the 1940s, these stories explore the daily misunderstandings and self-deceits, the secrets and lies that seep into all our lives.

Gaynor Arnold brings the same empathy and social worker's insight to Lying Together that she previously shone on the marriage of Charles Dickens in Girl in a Blue Dress. Versatile and provocative, her new collection confirms the arrival of a natural storyteller with a rich understanding of the human heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782831747
Publisher:	Profile
Publication date:	08/28/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	400 KB

About the Author

Gaynor Arnold was born in Wales, but now lives in Birmingham. Her 2008 debut novel Girl in a Blue Dress (based on the marriage of Charles Dickens) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize; and shortlisted for the McKitterick Prize. It was published worldwide and translated into several languages. Gaynor's short story collection Lying Together, partly based on her experiences as a social worker, came out in 2011 and was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Her second novel, After Such Kindness (exploring the relationship between Lewis Carroll and his child-muse Alice) was published in 2012. Gaynor has also co-edited The Sea in Birmingham with Julia Bell.

Table of Contents

Telling Radnor 3

Looking for Leslie Howard 29

Mouth 55

Angel Child 63

The Ginger Rogers of Bath and Wells 71

Heart Trouble 83

Remembering the Flowers 91

Stand Well Back 113

Salad Days 125

Room for Manoeuvre 137

French Coffee 149

In the Street of the Rose-gatherers 159

Six Weeks with Kimberley 165

Taking People In 173

Lying Together 181