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STORM AT ARBERTH by Siân James

STORM AT ARBERTH

by Siân James

Pub Date: April 3rd, 1997
ISBN: 1-85411-111-6

Storm At Arberth ($14.95 paperback original; Apr. 3, 1997; 176 pp.; 1-85411-111-6): An initially involving but eventually turgid short novel by an award-winning Welsh writer. Protagonist Marian is a widow who runs a small shop in a rural village and is variously influenced and transformed by her relationships with a manless woman friend, a borderline- fey neighbor who ``believes in some sort of Earth Magic,'' and with an imperfectly matched gay couple. An all-too-symbolic approaching storm overhangs an otherwise crisply told story that unwisely ends in a virtual orgy of renunciation and compassionate understanding, placing this curious fiction somewhere between Iris Murdoch and Search for Tomorrow.