ISBN: 9780099472254

Synopsis The matchless Munro makes art out of everyday lives in this dazzling new collection. At its centre are three stories connected into one marvellously rich narrative about Juliet – who escapes from teaching at a girls’ school and throws herself into a wild and passionate love match. Here are men and women of wildly different times and circumstances, their lives made vividly palpable by the nuance and empathy of Munro’s writing. “Runaway” is about the power and betrayals of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes these stories more powerful and compelling than anything she has written.

Bookclub Review The matchless Munro makes art out of everyday lives in this dazzling new collection. At its centre are three stories connected into one marvellously rich narrative about Juliet – who escapes from teaching at a girls’ school and throws herself into a wild and passionate love match. Here are men and women of wildly different times and circumstances, their lives made vividly palpable by the nuance and empathy of Munro’s writing.

“Runaway” is about the power and betrayals of love, about lost children, lost chances. There is pain and desolation beneath the surface, like a needle in the heart, which makes these stories more powerful and compelling than anything she has written.

What the group thought:

This book was fairly unusual in that almost everyone in the group agreed on its merits. “Impressive,” “Outstanding,” “Deceptively simple,” and “Accomplished,” were just some of the comments. There was a discussion about the significance of the goat in the first story and some minor quibbling about the Shakespearean device used in another. But apart from that, it is self-evident that Munro is a great writer and all the group could do was stand in awe of her craftsmanship. In this respect, Munro’s work does not make for lively book club discussion.