Bookclub Haunted by past

Charlotte heathCote

old Babes in The wood by Margaret Atwood

(Chatto & Windus, £22) There’s a reflective quality to Margaret Atwood’s latest collection of short stories, her first fiction since 2019’s Booker Prize-winning The Testaments.

There are 15 stories in all but the backbone of the book is a series of seven interlinked tales that follow long-married couple Tig and Nell over the years, and later, when she is widowed.

Atwood’s partner Graeme Gibson died from dementia in 2019, making Tig and Nell’s story feel deeply personal. Atwood writes perceptively about grief, memory, and the space both left behind and taken up by people when they die.

Other delights showcase Atwood’s spiky wit and imagination. Freeforall provides a snapshot of what’s left after a deadly sexually transmitted disease destroys the world. The

Two emotional tales about the impact of memories, both good and bad

only solution is no contact at all between people – echoing the isolation of the pandemic – and a rigid system of arranged marriages between the few unafflicted people.

Metempsychosis is a very funny take on reincarnation when a snail meets an unfortunate end and its soul is transported into the body of a bank worker.

It is Tig and Nell’s story that will stay with you though.

“I used to believe that having a good memory is a blessing but I’m no longer so sure. Maybe forgetting is the blessing,” concludes Nell.

mernie gilmOre

old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

(Faber & Faber, £18.99) Sebastian Barry cements his status as one of our most gifted writers with the story of detective Tom Kettle. He retired nine months ago and now lives alone with his memories in a coastal suburb of Dublin.

Tom’s “stationary, happy, and useless” life is interrupted by the arrival of two former colleagues seeking advice on a cold case. But their enquiries unearth a dark chapter of Tom’s story.

Old God’s Time is a poetic and meditative depiction of Tom’s innermost being and the memories of his late wife, children and career that haunt him. He is an unreliable narrator, unable to face up to the truths of his history in an Ireland where, he believes, “nothing was what it was made out to be. The truth included”.

Both Tom and his wife were raised in Catholic orphanages and suffered abuse. His excolleagues seek to prosecute a case of child abuse and Tom may know more than he is willing to admit. Barry’s subtle depiction of Tom’s struggle paint a picture of his life, despite his conviction “enough time goes by and it is as if old things never happened”.

Old God’s Time is a profound meditation on how one man’s past can lie uneasy and trauma can echo down the years.