The Deep and Other Stories

by Mary Swan

“A writer who arrives with grace and authority,” says Alice Munro about the superb short stories of Mary Swan, winner of the First Prize in the 2001 O. Henry Awards.

In The Deep and Other Stories , Mary Swan gives us brilliant stories that illuminate the remarkable moments in life, covering a wide range of human thoughts and emotions in a unique, imaginative, and profoundly moving way. “ The Deep ,” her O. Henry Prize–winning story and the centerpiece of this book, tells of twin sisters, their lives amid the horror and confusion of World War I, and the deep connection between them.

The mysterious bonds that entwine people are at the heart of other stories as well. Whether vacationing at the Belgian seaside (“ By the Sea, By the Sea ”) or sharing an apartment in Spain (“ Spanish Grammar ”), Swan’s characters discover the emotional foundations that are part of being human. Imaginative, poetic, and true, The Deep and Other Stories reveals something unexpected—and magnificent—about what it means to be alive, to feel love and passion, to know and experience the world’s pains and pleasures in a way that is rooted in, and ultimately the essence of, the human condition. As Mary Gordon says, “‘ The Deep ’ marks the deep strangeness of the project of being alive....It flowers entirely on its own terms, and the terms are rich and strange.”


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Historical Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2002

About the author

Mary Swan is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is also a trained librarian with a keen eye for history. Her novel The Boys in the Trees, a shortlisted nominee for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize, was inspired by a newspaper clipping concerning a death within a family.

Swan was the winner of the 2001 O. Henry Award for short fiction for her short story "The Deep", which was published in The Malahat Review. That story later became the title story of her debut short story collection The Deep and Other Stories in 2002.

A graduate of York University and the University of Guelph, she currently resides in Guelph, Ontario with her family.

Reviews

[Nightshade · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing throughout each of the stories is beautiful. The stories deal with loss, grief, broken bonds, and familial relationships, many of them deal with the time during the war, without sitting within the actual battlefields. There were a couple of stories which I do not fully understand, and one which I found a little too short, and would have preferred to be immersed in it a bit longer.

[Alicia Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her story structure is amazing. Her characters are lovely and unpredictable. She's one of my new favorite short story writers.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Upon re-read, this is really friggin sad and I appreciate the writing a lot more

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only read "the deep" while i was living in mexico-- not the other stories. I think I need a breather. I'd stashed a copy of 2003 "best short stories" in my suitcase for its efficiency and portability in entertainment during my extended stay in another country. Then, once I started reading it, It was sort of like i was getting drunk on it, as a story, or like standing outside in rare, dangerous winter thunderstorm.

anyway, then i read (again, in the infamous southern lit course) grace king's "the little convent girl"

text here:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/king...

and sort of shivered.

Both stories are definitely Kate Chopiny too.

women and suicide by drowning, man-- what kind of, like, freudian trope is that?

[Anne Sanow · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title story (strange twins, WWI) is brilliant: haunting and gorgeously written. Because it's novella-length, it has also been published separately (by Granta Books, and I think also by a small Canadian press). I'd advise just getting that--the others in this volume just don't hold a candle to "The Deep," and even some of the better ones take up too-similar material.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart breaking story of twin sisters who volunteer in France during WWI. The polyvocal style gives interesting insights into the characters and also maintains tension in the narrative. I can see in this the germ of the style that Swan used to shattering effect in her marvellous novel The Boys in the Trees.

[Joanna Eleftheriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to read, but a great book. One to remember.

[Foreign]

Dutch editor: Lolies van Grunsven

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And she thought that it was such a waste, the way you started to figure things out so late. The way the knowing wasn't anything you could pass on anyway" (82).

[Parissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An admirable collection of strangely provocative stories. The title story is easily the best-- you won't forget it.

[Annemariem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short stories, especially 'The Deep' and 'Spanish Grammar', but every single story has a certain something that makes you smile.

[Harve Lemelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful melancholic masterpiece.

[Abby Peck · Rating 2 out of 5]

'the old wife' was a great story, the rest were ok.