Inherited

Inherited (2011, UWA Publishing)

Keeping. Wanting. Surviving. Remembering. Breaking. Leaving. Returning.

A dancer in a wheelchair. A collector of corks. One woman seduced by a mountain and another by Freddo Frogs. A man who hears his dead wife’s voice. A poet whose voice has disappeared. A photographer distilling grief in his lens. A sound designer stealing the sound of a room.

Inherited brings together stories about the gifts and burdens we inherit from the world or from those we love, and what we, in turn, leave behind.

Only an experienced editor … could understand how to achieve such graceful economy of utterance. Only a born writer—the kind of novelist who produced a debut as assured as 2008’s Sinkings—could make those few words count. • Geordie Williamson, The Weekend Australian

Curtin’s fascination with history, art, literature and, most compellingly, the texture of lives, makes these stories vibrant and eclectic. Its scope and intelligence announce a writer to watch. • Felicity Plunkett, Canberra Times

Inherited, Amanda Curtin’s second book, is a substantial collection of short fiction, large enough for readers to appreciate her skill in rendering the tender and the unexpected. • Brenda Walker, The Weekend Australian

This book acknowledges our need to want and keep, to survive and remember, to return; and the inevitability of our leaving. It is graceful and compelling. • Angela Meyer, Sydney Morning Herald

Inherited is an exceptional collection of beautiful stories, written with the intense spareness of poetry. • Magdalena Ball, The Compulsive Reader

Curtin draws upon famous historical figures and her fictional characters to create stories that blur the lines between what is real and what is imagined. No future appears too odd, too unbelievable, when placed alongside the strange truth of the past. • Jenni Moody, Antipodes

ISBN 978 1 74258 293 1

Related posts:
On the story ‘Live Forever’ here
On the story ‘Paris Bled into the Indian Ocean’ here
On the story ‘Rush’ here