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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

The Sound Mirror by Heidi James review – an exceptional, intimate voice

The lives of three women are linked in a conceptually daring novel with the propulsion of a thriller Tamara is on her way to kill her mother and she’s bringing her female ancestors with her, a Greek chorus consisting of “fragments, un-unified, unstable entities colliding under the swirling universe”. It is they who narrate the lives of _The Sound Mirror_’s three linked female characters: Tamara, Ada and Claire. How exactly these women relate to each other is the central mystery. The communal voice could be jarring, but Heidi James keeps the ancestors to a close third person that renders their occasional comments on the action the more chilling. “We’re all gamblers, holding out for a change in our luck,” they say, of the generations of women who have tried to haul themselves out of poverty. But “The house always wins. Mother is always right.” Continue reading...


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com