The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories

By: Penelope Lively

Narrated by: Davina Porter

A glimmering collection of new short fiction from the Booker Prize winner and national best-selling author of How It All Began

In such acclaimed novels as The Photograph, Family Album, and How It All Began, Penelope Lively has captivated readers and listeners with her singular blend of wisdom, elegance, and humor. Now, in her first story collection in decades, Lively takes up themes of history, family, and relationships across varied and vividly rendered settings.

In the title story, a Mediterranean purple swamp hen chronicles the secrets and scandals of Quintus Pompeius' villa, culminating with his narrow escape from the lava and ash of Vesuvius. "Abroad" captures the low point of an artist couple's tumultuous European road trip, trapped in a remote Spanish farmhouse and forced to paint a family mural and pitch in with chores to pay for repairs to their broken-down car. Other stories reveal friends and lovers in fateful moments of indiscretion, discovery, and even retribution - as in "The Third Wife", when a woman learns her husband to be a serial con artist and turns a house hunting trip into an elaborately staged revenge trap.

Each of these delightful stories is elevated by Lively's signature graceful prose and eye for the subtle yet powerfully evocative detail. Wry, charming, and keenly insightful, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories is a masterful achievement from one of our most beloved writers.

©2016 Penelope Lively (P)2017 Recorded Books

Great stories

Interesting writing style of straightforward telling. Scenes are a rarity. It is like listening to a fable. Many stories about couples and romance troubles. Relatable and interesting. Didn't like the ghost stories though... creepy and not very original.

The reading

I couldn’t understand what this story was about. Seemed like a lot of little stories that went nowhere.

More wonderful stories by Penelope Lively

I enjoy everything this British author has written and this outstanding collection of short stories is no exception. Insightful, dignified, poignant & wise. Her use of language is economical and fine but it’s the intense scrutiny of the “interiority” of her characters that makes these pieces ring true, and move me.

Just OK

I guess Penelope Lively spoiled me with “How it All Began” (and also Katherine Kellgren spoiled me with her reading of it). But these short stories left me a little flat and though Davina Porter is clearly a very talented reader, I felt she was sometimes unable to create enough distinctions between characters, making it hard to always tell who was talking at that particular moment.