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Pond

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About this listen

Feverish and forthright, Pond is an absorbing chronicle of the pitfalls and pleasures of a solitudinous life told by an unnamed woman living on the cusp of a coastal town. Broken bowls, belligerent cows, swanky aubergines, trembling moonrises and horrifying sunsets, the physical world depicted in these stories is unsettling yet intimately familiar and soon takes on a life of its own. Captivated by the stellar charms of seclusion but restless with desire, the woman’s relationship with her surroundings becomes boundless and increasingly bewildering. Claire-Louise Bennett’s startlingly original first collection slips effortlessly between worlds and is by turns darkly funny and deeply moving.

©2015 Claire-Louise Bennett (P)2021 Fitzcarraldo Editions Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Short Stories

Critic reviews

"This is an extraordinary collection of short stories - profoundly original though not eccentric, sharp and tender, funny and deeply engaging. A very new sort of writing, Bennett pushes the boundaries of the short story out into new territory: part prose fiction, part stream of consciousness, often truly poetry and always an acute, satisfying, delicate, honest meditation on both the joys and frustrations of a life fully lived in solitude. Take it slowly, because it is worth it, and be impressed and joyful." (Sara Maitland, author of A Book of Silence)

"I’d heard more good whispers about Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett than almost any other debut this year so, by the time I read it, expectations were high and - as it turned out - not disappointed. These stories are intelligent and funny, innovative and provocative, and it’s impossible to read them without thinking that here is a writer who has only just begun to show what she can do." (Eimear McBride, author of A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing)

All stars
Most relevant
4 hours or so of being wowed. And read by the author, couldn’t possibly have loved this more. Oh wow!

Bennett’s brilliant

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I tried to persevere with this book but for 1st time in v long time thought “why am I wasting my precious time?”. I just couldn’t get the point of it

Just didn’t get it

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