eBooks

Blurb:

The twelve stories in Letting Go take us on a journey through landscape, language and turbulent times, from the mid-19th century to the present day, and into the future. Stevenson’s array of characters from many walks of life and nationalities – including a traveller, a wood carver, chicken farm workers, a nurse, an architect and a magician – meet and part, some becoming reacquainted. Themes exploring identity, creativity and the environment, echo and connect throughout the different narratives, sometimes carried in snatches of song.

The author leads us outward from her native Scottish Borders to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Gàidhealtachd, south to England, across the Atlantic to Apartheid South Africa and, finally, to the melting Arctic.

Praise for Letting Go:

What is instantly striking – apart from the breathtaking, page-turning fluency with which Stevenson writes both in English, and in a powerful and lyrical Border Scots – is how many of the stories are explicitly about love; both the radical, life-changing force of romantic and sexual love, and the equal weight of love that binds a woman to a grown child with special needs, and special insights. – JOYCE MCMILLAN, THE SCOTSMAN

It’s an entertaining read […] Short and sweet! – SCOTTISH FIELD

Letting Go is a fine collection of stories that deserve to be widely read. Stevenson has previously shown how good a poet she is and this collection shows how equally good she is at writing prose.  – CULTURE MATTERS

An inspiring and thought-provoking book. – DR SYLVIA WARNECKE, THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Praise for Gerda Stevenson:

Really powerful work, and more than a collection – a sequence, because there is that underlying unity of consciousness and experience within and among the stories. So, artistry, yet also the tough experiences behind and through the words. – DONALD SMITH

An amazing, powerful collection. So many threads drifting in and out, colours disappearing then coming back into focus – and quite unsettling as the timeline moves to our day, and beyond. – MICHEL BYRNE

Brave and vibrant. – JAMES ROBERTSON

Wonderfully compassionate creation of characters, their interactions, and evocation of place and landscape. – VICKI FEAVER

Stevenson effortlessly flits from English into Scots – a real strength, giving her work a rare diversity. – JIM AITKEN