Product Description

Published to outstanding critical acclaim in 1998, this work provides a collection of stories that reveal an extraordinarily visual imagination, a deep love of language and an adventurous versatility.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18213 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 242 pages

Customer Reviews

a stunning collection
Michel Faber proved his credentials with his fine novel Under The Skin. But is well worth going back to this earlier collection of short stories. All of the stories possess a vivid imagination and a tightness of prose that would impress Joseph Conrad.

It begins with the title story which shows the first signs of Faber's use of female protaganists. Expertly crafted it has an emotional hammerblow at the end that shocks you to the core. The rest of the collection deals with diverse stories from God finding planet earth in a rubbish tip to a bunch of grotesque artists who are victims of a large practical joke.

Faber's stories are always thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining. Please buy this book...you'll be glad you did!

One Of A Kind
I found Michel Faber's Novel, "Under The Skin", to be both disturbing, wildly inventive, and unique. I could think of no one to compare his work to then, and now after reading his first collection of short stories, "Some Rain Must Fall", I still can gather no comparisons. There are stories that taken alone might lend them to be classified as similar to this person's work, or another's collection of short stories. However taken as a whole the works in this volume encompass so vast a range, from pure imagination, to a short story that reads as a documentary of a profession, no one else comes to mind.

There is a story of a teacher, a specialist who commands three times the normal rate for running a classroom. The start of the story is seemingly harmless, and then it progresses steadily to a horrific experience. Another begins and quickly becomes surreal, however the change is so subtle you might read it more than once to be sure it all is not a metaphor as opposed to a severe form of retribution.

Other stories focus on a narrower field of a person or two, and how presumptions that are made almost unconsciously can have life altering effects. This latter theme may not sound new, however the setting for his story and those that inhabit it are definitely not what would be called a traditional venue.

Mr. Faber is about as far from the traditional as a writer can get, and still be understood. "Under The Skin", pushed the envelope for me to grasp what he had in mind, but it nevertheless was powerful and unsettling. His workings on the fringes of his imagination seem to naturally produce a story of a most interesting universe. However with at least one tale he seems to condemn another extreme branch of expression without compromise. I agree with what he had one character write, whether the author agrees, who knows?

Like nothing you have probably read.

a brilliant first collection of stories
There is great writing and a wonderful imagination to be found in these stories. The range is amazing - a day in the life of a factory girl from the point of view of her hand, a love story in a porn shop, a scientist researching rain in the desert, God finding Earth on a rubbish pile - and there are some cunning plot twists along the way. And if you find modern art ridiculous you will love the final story. One of my favourite short story collections.