Madame Zero

May 8, 2017
Hall’s second collection of short stories is a disquieting demonstration of the power of the form, in which “you may never get to the bottom of something. You might end up staring over a precipice,” as do a couple and their friend in “Wilderness” when they attempt to cross a dangerous bridge over an abyss that is as symbolically charged as it is real. Two other stories, “Later His Ghost” and “One in Four,” take place in the kind of altered or threatened landscapes for which Hall is celebrated—the first in a dystopian future in which freezing temperatures and relentless winds have destroyed civilized life, the other in an era of a superbug that is devastating the population. In “Mrs. Fox,” a man chronicles his wife’s transformation into a fox. A woman’s chance encounter with a former lover in “Luxury Hour” demonstrates the writer’s penchant for unremitting melancholy, and “Evie,” an exploration of a woman’s escalating sexual desire, goes to the grim heart of human nature. These unnerving stories hover over unspoken truths; in “Goodnight Nobody,” the message is so deeply shrouded as to be indecipherable. Hall, whose fiction is known for its sense of place (specifically the countryside of her native Cumbria), has set herself a challenge, searching for meaning in other avenues. The results are challenging and thought-provoking.

May 1, 2017
Short fiction from the author of The Wolf Border (2015), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.In this diverse collection of stories, Hall depicts ordinary people confronting extreme circumstances. In "Case Study 2," a social worker's own inability to have a child complicates her attempts to help a boy rescued from a bizarre commune. A young woman's fear of heights gives her new insights into an unfortunate relationship in "Wilderness." When the title character in "Evie" develops an insatiable need for sweets, alcohol, and sex, her husband has to decide whether this is the end of their rather boring marriage or its salvation. A few stories are explicitly dystopian. "Later His Ghost," for example, is set in a world decimated by extreme weather. "One in Four" is a brief, epistolary piece about a pandemic, and "Theatre 6" is a chilling--and timely--depiction of a society in which saving the life of a pregnant woman in distress can be dangerous. These stories showcase Hall's thematic ambition and formal skill. She's adept at matching voice to narrative, and her language is inventive and expressive without being a distraction; more often than not, she finds just the right words for entirely unfamiliar situations. All the author's strengths are evident in "Mrs. Fox"--an award-winning story and the best in this volume--in which a woman called Sophia turns into a canid. The fact that Hall offers no naturalistic reason or magical explanation for this metamorphosis is intensely satisfying. It's a pleasure to be transported to a world where this sort of thing just happens, and watching as Sophia's husband adjusts to this new reality suggests that we already live in a world where, maybe, this sort of thing just happens. Readers familiar with Angela Carter's work might recognize this as a contemporary, suburban "The Tiger's Bride." Hall finds the weirdness in everyday life and makes the strange feel quotidian.

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June 1, 2017
The feral side of humanity is scary and unsettling, but Hall (The Wolf Border, 2015) is not afraid to explore the dark shadows in this compelling, if deeply unsettling collection of short stories. In the opening salvo, Mrs Fox, a married couple's lives are upended as the wife slowly transforms into a fox. The trick here is that the source of the madness remains unspecified: the reader can't tell who is playing whom but can only watch in mute horror as any sense of normalcy slowly slips away. A similar theme recurs in the closing Evie, in which a wife gradually becomes unrecognizable to her husband as she slips into the depths of mania. A young woman confronts her fears in Wilderness in the hinterlands of South Africa, and gripping end-of-the-world scenarios play out in two other tales. Razor-sharp writing ( She had long black hair down to her backside, upholstered lips and hipbones that jutted out of her jeans like scaffolding. ) forms a striking canvas for stories which teeter on the edge of bizarre and are riveting and vital.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2017

A new mother encounters an old flame, and a woman periodically turns into a fox. Intriguing scenarios that will doubtless yield gem-like stories: Hall (The Wolf Border) was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, and her shelf topples over with honors that include the BBC Short Story Prize, the E.M. Forster Award, the Betty Trask Award, and more. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2017

A woman who morphs into a fox, a feral 12-year-old discovered out on the moors, a woman consumed by strange new appetites, and a world transformed by catastrophic windstorms are some of the bizarre themes in this collection. In "Mrs. Fox," a happily married couple is worried about the wife's sudden illness. What seems at first to be morning sickness turns into something far more sinister. While on a therapeutic walk in the woods, the husband is stunned to see his wife shed her skin, grow fur, and become a fox. The reverse of "Mrs. Fox" is "Case Study 2," in which an undernourished wild child is found wandering alone on the moors. Treatment attempts to humanize him prove extremely difficult. Mystery lies at the heart of "Evie" when a woman develops a voracious and unexplained appetite for food, alcohol, and raunchy sex. Finally, the entire world is rendered unrecognizable in "Later, His Ghost," a postapocalyptic tale about a man's risky search for provisions and books. VERDICT Hall (How To Paint a Dead Man), a Granta Best of Young British Novelists, is not as well known as some of her contemporaries. She deserves a closer look for her beguiling collection. [See Prepub Alert, 2/13/17.]

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.