New Zealander Frame, the multiple-award-winning novelist, short story writer, and poet, is as famous for her epic personal history as for her career. Her first collection, The Lagoon and Other Stories, published in 1954, was written while Frame stayed in a mental hospital. This new anthology spans her lifetime and includes the best of four published collectionsThe Lagoon and Other Stories, Snowman Snowman: Fables and Fantasies, The Reservoir: Stories and Sketches, and You Are Now Entering the Human Heartplus five previously unpublished stories. Often melancholy but containing wonderful detail, imagery, and emotion, her works cover a wide range of topics like childhood, madness, relationships, identity, and more. Many of the stories are two-page shorts, a testament to Frame's skill in concision and economy of language. VERDICT Highly recommended for poets and short story enthusiasts, this collection may be particularly appealing to writers who have struggled professionally, as they may identify with some of the characters. –
Library Journal Janet Frame proves the master of nostalgia, beauty, and loss. Frame is, and will remain, divine. –Alice Sebold
Quite simply, she's a stunning writer. –
Dominion Post (New Zealand)
A poetic soul has rarely come better disguised. –Jane Campion
