All set about with fever trees and other stories

the long version

The seven stories in Pam Durban's widely praised debut collection are tales of family, of love and loss, of survival and affirmation. Durban's resonant prose subtly obliges her readers to experience the rush of icy water in a stream, the taste of greens freshly snatched from an overgrown garden, the dread weight of confusion and uncertainty. A country singer more than a few big breaks short of stardom, a mill worker coping with the death of her teenage son, a preadolescent boy lovestruck over his private swimming instructor, a father cut off from his children by haunting war memories: these and other characters are made real and consequential by Durban's touch.