‘Witches sail in eggshells,’ I heard Meg say from behind me, and I looked back. She was pounding the shells, hard, with the palm of her hand on the flat of a knife.
Bewitched by ‘the sort of girl who’d batter your heart like a thrush with a snail on a stone’, a woman overlooks the one who really loves her.
A seaside community is overwhelmed when the sea begins to expel its life forms. But the villagers would rather raise the sea wall, whatever the cost, than confront their past mistakes.
A woman’s beloved garden withers as the baby inside her flourishes. When the pregnancy reaches its end, the progeny is not as she expects.
A widower feels like his life might have been a quiet nothing, but he’ll end it with the flight he’s always dreamed of. Even that fails, but instead of indignity, in the attempt he finds peace.
Perceptive, intriguing, and beautifully told, Chloe Turner’s debut collection explores the themes of love, loss, the little ways we let each other down, and how we can find each other again.
Chloe Turner grew up in London and then Bath, attending St Paul’s Girls’ School, London and Clifton College, Bristol. After reading Archaeology and Anthropology at Churchill College, Cambridge, she qualified as a chartered accountant. She now lives in a village near Stroud, Gloucestershire, with her family and some chickens. Chloe won the Fresher Prize for short story in 2017, and has twice been awarded the Local Prize in the Bath Short Story Award. ‘Waiting for the Runners’ was selected for inclusion in the Best British Short Stories 2018 anthology (Salt Publishing).
Additional information
Weight
N/A
ISBN
9781916111509
Publication date
11 June 2019
Format
eBook, Paperback
Pages
160
Size
198 x 129 mm
4 reviews for Witches Sail in Eggshells
Rated 5 out of 5
Elizabeth Nelson (verified owner)–
Simply magical and a joy to read! Each story is a gem of language and character, a stone to upturn and peer beneath.
Rated 4 out of 5
Mark Williams (verified owner)–
Whether consciously or unconsciously, at some point readers always ask themselves, Do I care about these characters? Do I care what happens to them? Do I sympathize with them? In “Witches Sail in Eggshells”—in story after story—I do. And Chloe Turner’s prose, in its descriptive detail, reads like poetry.
Rated 4 out of 5
James Lawless –
A wonderful collection with a beguiling title. Be careful what you do with your eggshells after you finish your egg. An atmospheric cover by the artist Laura Pashby entices the reader into a labyrinth of tales by a master story teller. They are reminiscent of Chekhov in their economy and off-beat wisdom. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
Rated 5 out of 5
Tracy Fells –
I loved every story in this collection, each one becoming my favourite as I read. The characters are memorable and intriguing, the themes varied along with the changing settings. No story is like another. Chloe Turner’s prose is sublime and it felt as if every word was a carefully chosen thread stitching the narratives together to create a final tapestry of delicate beauty. I particularly enjoyed Hagstone, Waiting for the runners, The Human Bird and Witches sail in eggshells, but found each story a different reading experience. This is a bewitching collection of stories from a very talented writer.
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Elizabeth Nelson (verified owner) –
Simply magical and a joy to read! Each story is a gem of language and character, a stone to upturn and peer beneath.
Mark Williams (verified owner) –
Whether consciously or unconsciously, at some point readers always ask themselves, Do I care about these characters? Do I care what happens to them? Do I sympathize with them? In “Witches Sail in Eggshells”—in story after story—I do. And Chloe Turner’s prose, in its descriptive detail, reads like poetry.
James Lawless –
A wonderful collection with a beguiling title. Be careful what you do with your eggshells after you finish your egg. An atmospheric cover by the artist Laura Pashby entices the reader into a labyrinth of tales by a master story teller. They are reminiscent of Chekhov in their economy and off-beat wisdom. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
Tracy Fells –
I loved every story in this collection, each one becoming my favourite as I read. The characters are memorable and intriguing, the themes varied along with the changing settings. No story is like another. Chloe Turner’s prose is sublime and it felt as if every word was a carefully chosen thread stitching the narratives together to create a final tapestry of delicate beauty.
I particularly enjoyed Hagstone, Waiting for the runners, The Human Bird and Witches sail in eggshells, but found each story a different reading experience.
This is a bewitching collection of stories from a very talented writer.