Monsieur Shoushana's Lemon Trees

by Patricia Duncker

From the author of Hallucinating Foucault comes this stunning collection of stories united by the themes of pleasure, passion, jealousy and revenge. Patricia Duncker creates worlds where the apparently innocent are not harmless and no one ever turns out to be exactly what they seem. In 'The Arrival Matters' - the extraordinary novella which crowns the collection - the characters play out the sinister and atmospheric end game of a mysterious and supernatural history of love. Elsewhere, a jealous husband pursues his adulterous wife through the streets of Paris, a forbidden book subverts an authoritarian state, a TV crew get considerably more than they bargained for, and a lesbian community in uproar is described with wry humour and tenderness.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Patricia Duncker attended school in England and, after a period spent working in Germany, she read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.

She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.

In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well written collection of short stories. Unfortunately I found the themes repetitive and some of the stories to be insubstantial. Two stories in the middle stand out - The Crew from M6 and The Storm. The latter is an outstanding story and will stay with me for a long time. I'm told that Patricia Dunker's novels are far better than this.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this shortly after reading the very excellent Hallucinating Foucault and it sat on my shelves till lockdown. More enjoyable on second reading than first. More comprehensible, so one can follow the rich language better.
Magical realism, I suppose. Somewhat unsettling stories. Full of rage and invisibility. The righteous rage at cultural invisibility of lesbians at the end of the 20th C.

[Helen Salsbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

French settings excellent.

[Melusina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting stories, several dull ones, one or two really great ones.