Hitting Trees with Sticks

Overview

A gifted young textile designer leaves Britain to work for a Nigerian women’s refuge, confident in the conviction that this is her one chance to make a difference; a 16-year-old accepts a low-paying job as a window-cleaner for the opportunity it affords him to peer into other people’s lives, and carefully plan his own; and a leading scientist risks his career by taking a secret lover back to his house one night, driven by a passion to share his new theory. The characters in this short story collection are unashamedly defiant. Buoyed by their self-belief, they enthuse, take calculated risks, and refuse to be beaten by situations. Offering an object lesson in how fine the balance can be between self-confidence and self-delusion, this compilation demonstrates how individuals, caught momentarily off-guard, drunk on the smallest drop of confidence, are ultimately brought down by their own belief in themselves.

Reviews

"An engaging, serious, and gleefully ironic novel, one that leaps headlong into the most ambitious and risky territories: faith, love, and existential meaning."  —New York Times Book Review on Mr. Wroe’s Virgins

"Beautifully constructed and controlled, The Voyage Home is an absorbing, nuanced drama about moral choices and personal responsibility. . . . The compelling denouement of this resonant and richly textured novel involves sexual violence and betrayal across the generations, but ends on a tentative note of hope."  —Katie Owen, Sunday Telegraph on The Voyage Home

Author Biography

Jane Rogers is a professor of writing at Sheffield Hallam University, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke award. She is the author of nine novels, including Mr. Wroe's Virgins, The Testament of Jessie Lamb, and The Voyage Home.