Murray, Sabina

This collection of stories is eerie enough to seep into one’s bones, but listeners looking for truly horrific ghost stories might want to seek out scarier fare. Recommended for those who enjoy gothic literature and detailed settings and are open to ambiguous endings.

With frequent nods to both contemporary and classic ghost-story writers (Daphne Du Maurier, Henry James), the success of these stories lies not just in the well-crafted writing but in the conscious mixing of a shape-shifting old world with an unreliably secure modern world. A masterly recharging of a treasured literary tradition that Murray clearly loves and respects.

As Ting’s unwritten book morphs into the very one we are reading, the author (Murray, a PEN/Faulkner Award winner for The Caprices) expands the original critique of the human zoo to include multiple zoos and multiple victimized humans, thus examining broad issues of culture, race, gender, sexuality, and politics against a global backdrop. Highly recommended.

Plenty of historical facts for those who love travel writing, but primarily readers of literary fiction will want to jump on board. [See Prepub Alert, 5/9/11.]