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From the bestselling author of The Mulberry Empire comes 'a masterly collection of stories! astonishing' Mail on Sunday Like the room from which it takes its title, THE BEDROOM OF THE MISTER 'S WIFE is a book full of secrets, partly revealed, partly concealed. A young couple are destroyed by the simple temptations of the ideal home; a shy Italian ends up in a stranger's hospital room when he rings a telephone number left in his back pocket; after a late-night excursion to Hampstead Heath; Stalin's daughter changes the life of a Cambridge painter with the gift of a fridge; and a German police officer spends a day posing as a terrorist, discovering new possibilities within herself. In this collection of thirteen stories, discrete and contained lives brush up against each other. With unerring precision, Hensher focuses on the small moments when lives alter, his characters enacting their quiet tragedies in rooms and streets which have the crystal clarity of dreamscapes and where banality can assume almost operatic proportions.
A collection of thirteen stories examines the fragile boundaries between the mundane and the transformative in the lives of disparate individuals. Each narrative centers on characters navigating sudden shifts in their circumstances, whether through chance encounters, domestic pressures, or unexpected external interventions. The prose maintains a focus on the internal states of these figures as they confront the limitations of their environments. The collection utilizes a varied narrative framework to explore how small, seemingly inconsequential actions can lead to profound personal consequences.
This collection is characterized by its meticulous attention to the subtle shifts in human behavior and the weight of everyday environments. The stories suggest a preoccupation with how individuals construct meaning within the confines of their private lives. Readers often note the author's ability to elevate ordinary scenarios into moments of significant emotional or existential gravity. The work functions as a series of snapshots that capture the intersection of public spaces and private vulnerabilities without relying on overt melodrama. The narrative voice remains consistently detached yet observant, inviting a close examination of the characters' internal landscapes.
Page Count:
256
Publication Date:
2004-01-01
Publisher:
Harper Perennial
ISBN-10:
0007180195
ISBN-13:
9780007180196
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