"Triumph" is a captivating book that I received an advance readers copy of, in exchange for my honest review here.
Lizzie Harwood draws one into these short stories immediately, in that instant you open the first page, you are just ' gone' into this unbelievable, yet maybe true (?) -seemingly - world, that she delivers at a staccato pace engrossing, rivetting whilst inescapably mesmerising. The reader too wonders at the way each girl -woman -young child just seems poised to be gone in yet another stunning escape.
Maybe this does also remind us of someone else, or somewhere else, where we too may remember one, or maybe even two, of these gone girls, that we may too have known once upon a bygone era. Then each story concludes, as abruptly as it began, with a knack of finishing, that leaves you almost hanging in suspense as if up in the air ; awaiting the next curtain call, the next moment of triumph , or just simply wondering whatever did become of Truman, or any of the other mysterious characters here. This is what made this book utterly impossible to put down, at all. Lizzie's uncanny ability to keep her readers absorbed and deeply involved in each new tale, to the very last word, in a way that totally grips. So that with every page turn, one eagerly awaits the next word, by-line or phrase in these tantalising tales. She writes in both micro and macro views, simultaneously, yet with a subtle dexterity that moves with guileless fluidity between each story, and between each story within a story. The reader is hooked in and " gone" into this world of collected stories from the first word, to the last.
It's a truly wonderful series of tales of "serial" encounters, that grip, and then astonish, maybe giving the reader a shudder , or clarity and insight, whilst also bringing a certain cold chill too. One knows intrinsically that these short stories seem based on neither fact, nor fiction; but sit somewhere in-between, and are evidently works of a unique and skilled artist of words.
I can only highly recommend this book which has been utterly brilliant to read, and that my only complaint is that there was just not enough, because alas, the book inevitably came to an end !
Lizzie Harwood's skilled crafting of short tales here are such that I am literally 'gobsmacked' by this, her first book. Any reader will be literally ' gone' from the moment they set foot upon the very first page of these short stories....This is a 'triumph' both in deed, and word.
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Top reviews from other countries
Ms T E Brothers
The gift of these stories is their honesty-- they meet ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2015
GillK
Would it be a cliché to say I couldn't put it down?
Reviewed in France on March 11, 2015