This anthology features four stories about the myriad roles of women: wife, mother, sister. The characters all burst from the seams of these strict confines, unable or unwilling to fit into the shapes society feels are appropriate.

Katie Hale's story tells of a young woman who falls in love with a goose. Set in Carlisle, it reads like a modern myth or fairy-tale. As the narrator falls deeper for the Goose, she starts to grow feathers and become more distant from her “real” life. This story is strange, and dark, yet with moments of beauty, just as folk tales often are.

Ivy Wife, by Louise Finnigan, gives the reader a world confined to a garden. The narrator has decided to quit her job and remain at home as her and her husband try, fruitlessly, to conceive. The ominous tones of hearthwife, a podcast or similar, are constantly the backdrop to her new life.

The following two stories by Jacqueline Ward and Helen Kennedy describe whole lives lived, and still create intimate, detailed moments. A woman who has never been seen, being allowed to just be, without the world turning on her. And an older sister, looking to heal the past.

These stories were all incredibly different, but all showed me the wonder of the short story. The ability to create a world where the story is told, and yet you also want more. This anthology brings together four talented writers and four fascinating stories. KM

Published by Fly on the Wall Press