Tuesday, 14 September 2010

The Small Hand by Susan Hill

This book is ‘hot off the press’, unlike a lot books I enjoy reading and re-reading.
I admire Susan Hill’s ability to tell a story clearly and succinctly in 167 pages. So many new books are far too long and much less satisfying to read. A good short novel can be read, again and again, savouring descriptions of people and places. I always enjoy her books and this one is very special.
Susan Hill has a particular forte for writing ghost stories such as this one. I’m going to recommend it to friends so we can discuss it further – the strange meeting between Adam Snow and the old woman at the White House, the photograph albums and the tended garden is masterful in making the reader wonder what is really going on there… In fact I need to read it again, slowly, carefully a second time. But not yet, because I’m too scared!
It will make an excellent audio book as long as one is not listening while driving along country lanes in Sussex or the remote mountains of the Vercors!

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