The Garden Party and Other Stories

Jun 19, 2025 10:01 AM

Author:Lorna Sage,Katherine Mansfield

Fifteen exquisite tales from one of the world'd greatest writers of the short story

Innovative, startlingly perceptive and aglow with colour, these stories were written towards the end of Katherine Mansfield's tragically short life. Many are set in the author's native New Zealand, others in England and the French Riviera. All are revelations of the unspoken, half-understood emotions that make up everyday experience - from the blackly comic 'The Daughters of the Late Colonel', and the short, sharp sketch 'Miss Brill', in which a lonely woman's precarious sense of self is brutally destroyed, to the vivid impressionistic evocation of family life in 'At the Bay'. 'All that I write,' Mansfield said, 'all that I am - is on the borders of the sea. It is a kind of playing.'

Reviews

Her debut collection paints a refreshingly surreal vision of small-town life... Selected by Granta as one of America's best young novelists, Russell is an intuitive writer with a gift for arresting prose

—— Independent

An exuberant collection; each story bursts forth from the pages with a cacophony of imagery that sweeps up the reader

—— The Times

Outrageously imaginative and profoundly funny... surreal... impressive in many ways... Her imagination is agile, like the body of a champion gymnast, and she lets it dance... Does anyone over here write like this, with such freedom, such vivacity? A wild and brilliant first book

—— Irish Times

Arcane, magical tales of adolescent transformation... reminiscent of Angela Carter but wonderfully confident and refreshing in its own right

—— Guardian

Delights in the quirky...truly magical and creepy settings

—— Daily Mail

Dazzling and moving

—— Independent on Sunday

Ten hugely entertaining short stories - including the hilarious titular tale of 15 lupine adolescents - from hot young US writer Russell

—— Financial Times

Russell proves herself the heir to Angela Carter in this simply dazzling collection of short stories. With macabre humour, dark fantasy and a haunting tone this is unforgettable stuff - even just titles such as 'Lady Yeti And The Palace Of Artificial Snows' are staggering.

—— Scotland on Sunday

These 10 inventive stories, set mostly in the Florida Everglades, mix satire and sophisticated whimsy

—— New York Times

Karen Russell has produced an engaging debut. Her ability to integrate mythology and the supernatural with the very contemporary...is reminiscent of Angela Carter, but unlike Carter's many imitators, Russell never descends into whimsy... In St Lucy's, humans, ghosts and animals are utterly real; and Russell sells the genuine article, a seemingly effortless writer

—— Alisa Cox , Mslexia

These are stories that will sneak into the back of your brain and lurk there long after you are finished reading.

—— Global Review

Poignant and wonderful story...concentrates, without effort, all Malouf's themes...it needs to be read

—— Prospect

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