Intimacies

By Lucy Caldwell,

Book cover of Intimacies

Book description

*Includes the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award*

'Smart, nuanced and sometimes heart-stopping.' Anne Enright
'Outstanding.' Guardian
'Eleven perfect stories.' Irish Independent
'Glorious.' The Times
'My FAVE collection ever.' Pandora Sykes

In eleven stories, Intimacies exquisitely charts the steps and missteps of young women trying to find…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Intimacies as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I chose this book of short stories because I loved Caldwell's winning entry for the 2021 British National Story Award: "All the People Were Mean and Bad" included in this book. 

This story focuses on an encounter between the mother and an attentive man in the next seat who fetches milk for the hungry child. We learn she's an architect, lonely and yearning to return to her profession, dreading becoming pregnant again, as her husband is often away.

As I read this book on a flight to Crete, I observed a baby being nursed by an extended family, each taking…

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