Play Audiobook Sample
Medusa's Ankles: Selected Stories Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
A ravishing, luminous selection of short stories from the prize-winning imagination of A. S. Byatt, "a storyteller who could keep a sultan on the edge of his throne for a thousand and one nights" (The New York Times Book Review). With an introduction by David Mitchell, best-selling author of Cloud Atlas
Mirrors shatter at the hairdresser's when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess, honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real.
Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her readers beyond the veneer of the ordinary—even beyond the gloss of the fantastical—to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.
Cover image: © 2021 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Download and start listening now!
"Amongst the many prizes that A. S. Byatt has won in a stellar career spanning nearly six decades, a late accolade, the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Prize, cites her ‘belief in the truth value of fairy tales, fables, and poetry.’ It’s an award that perceptively understands much of the foundation and inspirations for Byatt’s work; for running like an underground river, or a life-giving stream, in her oeuvre is a cogent, intricate, enriching conversation going on with some of the oldest genres known to human civilization. Her mythopoeic powers are formidable, entrancing."
— Neel Mukherjee, Electric Literature
Quotes
-
“A scintillating look at three decades of the author’s work…Each story showcases Byatt’s exquisite prose and her wide-ranging mastery of the short story form. For the uninitiated, this makes for a perfect entry point.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“The short story format suits Byatt beautifully. She favors adjective-spangled cascades of images, excavates the dictionary for rare specimens, and sends iambs and anapests cavorting across the paragraphs…Beautifully evocative.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
Medusa’s Ankles collects mesmeric, tantalizing short stories from over the course of Man Booker Prize-winning author A. S. Byatt’s career . . . A peek into an acclaimed author’s range as well as her poetic depths . . . As in her novels, Byatt’s shorter works display her fluent, luminous prose. Even in her most realistic stories, dark and glittering descriptions bewitch readers into an otherworldly experience.
— Shelf Awareness -
A scintillating look at three decades of the author’s work. Her stories transcend genre and stylistic limits, traversing through landscapes fantastical and real, as they bewitch, unnerve, and comfort the reader . . . Each story showcases Byatt’s exquisite prose and her wide-ranging mastery of the short story form. For the uninitiated, this makes for a perfect entry point.
— Publishers Weekly -
The short story format suits Byatt beautifully. She favors adjective-spangled cascades of images, excavates the dictionary for rare specimens, and sends iambs and anapests cavorting across the paragraphs . . . Exquisite . . . Beautifully evocative.
— Kirkus Reviews
Medusa's Ankles Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt (1936–2023) was a distinguished critic and author of numerous works, including Possession: A Romance, which won the Booker Prize for Fiction, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her other works also garnered awards and acclaim, and she was granted numerous honorary degrees. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge; Bryn Mawr College; and Somerville College, Oxford. In 1999 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
About the Narrators
Esther Wane is a British actor and voice-over artist. After a career in finance, she fulfilled a childhood dream of going to drama school in London, and her life as an actor began at age forty. She has a lifelong passion for literature and can often be found browsing bookshops during any spare moments. Wane enjoys taking her listeners on a journeys in time and space and bringing the characters on the page to life in their imagination. She lives with her family and collection of books in Hertfordshire, just outside London.
Esther Wane is a British actor and voice-over artist. After a career in finance, she fulfilled a childhood dream of going to drama school in London, and her life as an actor began at age forty. She has a lifelong passion for literature and can often be found browsing bookshops during any spare moments. Wane enjoys taking her listeners on a journeys in time and space and bringing the characters on the page to life in their imagination. She lives with her family and collection of books in Hertfordshire, just outside London.
Matthew Lloyd Davies is a veteran actor, director, and Audie Award–winning audiobook narrator. Highlights of his acting career include regular appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre in the West End, on international tours, and in award-winning television shows and films. He has experience in radio, a master’s degree in directing, and extensive experience in presenting at corporate events.