Book blurb

This is a work of fiction. It is set in a real town, in (for the most part) real locations; there are references to some real people and some of the events described really happened, but the characters in the story—Megan, her family and the people she meets in the town—are all creatures of my imagination.

The Geography of the Heart is an exceptional collection, and Cath Barton uses the Novella-in-flash form to do what could not be accomplished so well in any other form, giving us an insider’s look at the way the people in a small town in Wales live. This is an intimate book and a beautiful one too. It is one that I have lingered over a few times now because it asks us to spend some long quiet moments with the inhabitants of Abergavenny, and these are people worth spending time with.

John Brantingham – Former poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, former community college professor, and current full-time writer.

My thoughts

A young woman, Megan, who has spent her life in the south of England, working in London and enjoying travelling the world after her mother moves to Abergavenny to be close to family. With little more than the odd postcard from her over the years she comes along to her mother’s birthday party and the place draws her in.

With her mother getting older and frailer she doesn’t want to become her sole carer. Her thoughts are quite brutal on the matter but working out how to be there for an older parent without giving up your own life is something many people have to deal with and can find very difficult to do. It’s part of the story that is well handled and thoughtfully written by Cath Barton and will resonate with many readers.

It is Abergavenny that captures the woman’s attention and the appeal of the place becomes clear as we join her getting involved with various community events and groups. The women’s walking group, the sewing group all bring the setting and the people of Abergavenny alive.

Through a collection of scenes, a few previously published, the author has beautifully brought together with new scenes into a whole a story that charts the changing importance things have to the young woman and the need, ultimately, to connect and find her niche, her place in the world. Showing how a place can draw you to it and then you find it has everything you need, had known this even before in this instance the young woman knew it herself.

The scenes could be read as individual pieces, indeed some were initially written as such, but by bringing them together with new scenes it has made them a whole, a story that describes how close relationships can grow apart and then be brought together again in a different but as powerful a way. It reflects on the difficulty of caring in a world where life expectancy has become longer. The setting is beautifully described and the characters are wonderful making you wonder about moving to Abergavenny yourself. It is a beautiful, honest piece of writing that I enjoyed immensely.

Book: Purchased

#20Booksofsummer24

This is a catch up post for my 20 books of summer challenge. I will link this post to the final challenge post.

Information

Published: Arroyo Seco Press (11 Dec. 2023) | 68 pp | ISBN-13‎ 979-8989565900

Buy: AmazonSmileUK | Local Bookshop | Local Library | From the author (which is how I purchased this book).

Purchase other books: Hive UK | Amazon.com (USA) | GWales.com | Waterstones | Barnes and Noble | AmazonSmileUK |see also individual titles below with links

Author

Cath Barton was born in the Midlands and now lives in Abergavenny, Wales. Cath’s favourite novel is Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and her favourite novella is Animal Farm by George Orwell. Her top poet is U. A. Fanthorpe.

Her short stories have been published in anthologies in Australia, the US and the UK, most recently in Normal Deviation (Wonderbox Publishing) and Nothing Is As It Was (Retreat West books) and in literary magazines The Lonely Crowd and Strix. Cath was Literature Editor of California-based Celtic Family Magazine (2013-2016). 

She won the New Welsh Writing AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella in 2017 for The Plankton Collector, which was published in Sept. 2018 by New Welsh Review under their Rarebyte imprint.

In the Sweep of the Bay is her second novella published by LWB. Here’s Cath reading her favourite paragraph from her book on the LWB YouTube channel, where you can also find a recording of the online Zoom launch party held on Sunday 22 November 2020. 

Whilst on an enhanced mentoring scheme for writers, run by Literature Wales, she has been working on a collection of short stories inspired by the work of the sixteenth century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch. Her short stories and flash fiction can be explored at Cath Barton /stories.

See Cath Barton’s  tweets |  Website

Books

In the Sweep of the Bay | The Plankton Collector | Between the Virgin and the Sea (Leamington Books) | Mr Bosch and His Owls

Stories – This is an archive of Cath Barton’s published short stories and flash fiction currently up to 22/1/23