Life Without Children
Stories
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3.9 • 7 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“[Doyle] imparts a sense of poignancy and glimpses of happiness, of grief and loss and small moments of connection . . . you’re left feeling close to dazzled.” —Daphne Merkin, New York Times Book Review
A brilliantly warm and witty portrait of our pandemic lives, told in ten heartrending short stories, from the Booker Prize–winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone.
In these ten beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse struggles to let go, having lost a much-loved patient in isolation. A middle-aged son, barred from his mother’s funeral, wakes to an oncoming hangover of regret.
Told with Doyle’s signature warmth, wit, and extraordinary eye for the richness that underpins the quiet of our lives, Life Without Children cuts to the heart of how we are all navigating loss, loneliness, and the shifting of history underneath our feet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Doyle's accomplished collection (after the novel Love) probes the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on a series of marriages. A mug angrily thrown at a wall during an argument in "Box Sets" turns out to be the last straw for a recently laid-off husband and his disillusioned wife. The mug doesn't shatter, rather it prophetically breaks in half "along an old crack." The title story features a father of four who is on a work trip in England, where he toys with the temptation to abandon his family back in Dublin. In "The Curfew," regional lockdown guidelines induce sadness, panic, and hopelessness, all of which are compounded for a man after he receives a dire coronary diagnosis. "Nurse" features a healthcare worker reflecting on the inner turmoil induced by her daily reality, while in contrast, a man mourns the loss of his own routine in "Masks." It is only during Doyle's final few stories that his characters begin to find compassion and hope. A master of dialogue—whether strained, deceptive, or free-flowing—Doyle has a keen eye for the interconnectedness and the criticality of communication, which makes these stories shimmer. Doyle's raw portrayal of living and loving under lockdown has a deep resonance.
