A Girl’s Arm

Synopsis

A Girl’s Arm is a collection of stories homing in on the pressure points in the lives of its characters. Although a mixed bag from a variety of backgrounds – an apparently nerveless woman rock climber, a young classicist on the academic make, an estranged son just dropping by after many years – with a couple of exceptions they would be classed as ‘ordinary’. The stories focus on that single extraordinary event from which the course of his or her particular narrative veers off and they are offered the chance to become what they were meant to be. It can lead in many cases to prospering after aridity, or as in the title story, to a demonic hatching.

Reviews of this Book

‘... narrative of adversity, stoicism and hospitality, tender, terrible and believable. Williams leaves us with stark and striking images that haunt us long after the book is closed’ —Stevie Davis, New Welsh Review

‘Williams supports the sudden shifts in perspective with some well-defined vernacular voices’ —Observer

‘The novel has the distinction of being both a page-turner and one you want to savour … Salvage is the least predictable novel I’ve read in a long time.’ —The New Writer

‘“The eleven stories in Gee Williams’ third collection, A Girl’s Arm, relate to a variety of characters and situations… Williams’ writing is affable, mellifluous, her descriptions and observations at intervals almost mesmeric: ‘…the beach was invisible – but the sand was ubiquitous, followed you like a promise, kicked about and traipsed in, saying this is nowhere ordinary.’ ‘The ruby in her navel was a half a billiard ball.’ But her real gift lies in her ability to confidence-trick her reader into wholeheartedly believing an unreliable narrator, or to visit places and people that, in different circumstances, they’d cross the road to avoid, manipulating them so succinctly and without a hint of awkwardness, they’re likely to become dizzy. She’s a bit of a magician.”’ —Rachel Trezise, New Welsh Review