Astray Pdf Summary
The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Emma Donoghue’s stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, lovers old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito or under duress.
With rich historical detail, the celebrated author of Room takes us from puritan Massachusetts to revolutionary New Jersey, antebellum Louisiana to the Toronto highway, lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present. Astray offers us a surprising and moving history for restless times.
“The Hunt” was short-listed for the 2012 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award.
READ
- The Madness Of Crowds Pdf Summary Reviews By Louise Penny
- And Then There Were Four Summary Reviews By Nancy Werlin
- Glass Houses Pdf Summary Reviews By Louise Penny
- The Long way Home Pdf Summary Reviews By Louise Penny
Astray Review
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Donoghue
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2012
Verified Purchase
Emma Donoghue gets into the heads and hearts of her characters as few other writers do. In “Astray,” her new short story collection, she adopts the points of view of a wide range of characters in different eras, places and circumstances. Memorable characters include a Calamity Jane-like woman in the American West who retrieves an errant husband out on a bender; a Creole girl who has a dramatic coming of age in antebellum Louisiana; a trainer who bonded with Jumbo before the circus elephant was shipped off from England; and a young Hessian soldier compelled to prove his `manhood’ while serving with the British army in New Jersey in 1776.
In a revealing Afterword, Donoghue says the idea for “Astray” came from her own experience as a two-time emigrant. She moved from her native Dublin to England for higher education, and from England to Canada for love and a family. She knows what it feels like to be a “stray” or “astray,” and tells the stories of dozens of characters who are either departing, in transit or arriving at some destination, whether a physical place or a key point in their lives. The 14 stories are divided into those three categories: Departures, In Transit, and Arrivals and Aftermaths.
Each story is based on a historical person or event Donoghue uncovered in some old newspaper or archive. She brings these people and events to life by imagining their backstories and motivations. Many of the stories are told in the first person, and she is particularly adept at inhabiting the characters’ psyches and expressing their feelings in the dialects, idioms and cadences of their time, place and culture.
I found “Counting the Days” and “The Lost Seed” especially good. “Counting the Days” is about a family fleeing the Irish famine of the 1840s. It juxtaposes the thoughts of an anxious wife crossing the Atlantic with the struggles of her husband who has gone before and is awaiting her in Quebec. “The Lost Seed” is quite different, a rather unpleasant but powerful tale of self-hatred and hypocrisy in Plymouth Colony in the 1630s.
Although Donoghue has been published since the mid-1990s, I had the pleasure of discovering her work in just the past year and have devoured most of her books. Her range is remarkable. Her novels, short stories, fairy tales and academic volumes are written with a clarity that makes them accessible to all readers. Whether dead serious or light in tone (there are some laugh-out-loud stories and a great piece of erotica in her collection Touchy Subjects ), Donoghue never fails to be both entertaining and insightful. Slammerkin is as perfect a novel as has ever been written and is increasingly recognized as a modern classic. Room: A Novel is a thriller with great depth, an epic of survival and a profound ode to motherhood.
In the Afterword to “Astray,” Donoghue says that Charles Dickens is her favorite novelist. I’m not surprised. Her prose is actually leaner than his, but in all the essentials she matches the master: great plotting, rich characters and a blazing moral intelligence. All are evident in “Astray.”
5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid!
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2012
Verified Purchase
I just finished Astray and I am, not to put too fine a point on it, in awe. What an extraordinary collection of short stories, each as rich and involving as a novel. I’m originally from Illinois and so was raised on every Lincoln story, including the plot to steal his body. It was so much fun to find that story told so well in “The Body Swap.” I usually don’t like the epistolary form, and frankly I read “The Gift” in the hope Donoghue might have something useful to say in spite of the genre. I ought to have had more faith. I was moved beyond the telling. I was particulary impressed with the way she made each writer right, certain of her or his superior claim. Each character expressed genuine love for the poor child who did not know she was the subject of such a heartbreaking battle. “Counting the Days” made me ache with sadness, and yet so real were the characters to me that I was able to take some solace in the knowledge that at least Jane found out what happened to her husband. “What Remains” didn’t just break my heart, it shattered it. Astray is moving, brilliant, heartbreaking–a gift to readers from a writer of astonishing talent.
About Emma Donoghue Author Of Astray pdf Book
Emma Donoghue the author of Astray pdf book grew up in Ireland, 20s in England doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, since then in Canada. Best known for my novel, film and play ROOM, also other contemporary and historical novels and short stories, non-fiction, theatre and middle-grade novels.
Astray pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Little, Brown and Company; 1st edition (October 30, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316206296
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316206297
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,735,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #457 in Historical Fiction Short Stories (Books)
- #38,447 in Short Stories (Books)
- #109,223 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.1 out of 5 stars 156 ratings
Get A Copy Of Astray pdf Or Paperback By Emma Donoghue
You Can get A Copy Of Astray pdf Or Paperback By Emma Donoghue from these online store links below.
