(I Read) Pianos and Flowers by Alexander McCall Smith
I started writing this at half Pianos and Flowers is a collection of 14 short stories. Each story breathes life into a single photograph – and there is no better writer to breathe life into photographs other than the great Alexander McCall Smith.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE McCall Smith’s slice-of-life writings. This collection of short stories would be a wonderful introduction to McCall Smith.
The stories may be short. We may only be getting glimpses of each character. The human touch? In abundance.
The English family settling in Penang towards the end of the British Empire’s heyday. Drifts apart due to service to the empire. Tragedy strikes. The only son steps up.
Childhood mates reuniting on the battlefield and holding onto promises until the very end.
A changing society giving the opportunity for one mother to do something she never could in the past.
The younger twin sibling telling her own twin sons to live their own lives instead of mirroring each other’s.
A professor and a librarian on the bike together to the university, the ride occupying the professor’s mind amidst the grieve he still has over his son’s death right before the armistice.
The neighbourhood children growing up and living different lives. A few crossed paths again though tragically. One became a people’s person. One lived exotically.
A wife concerned over her ever-paranoid husband.
These are just some of the stories in the collection. Photos below show the first page of each story.
On to the next one!
