The Loudest Sound and Nothing: Stories

by Clare Wigfall

One long hot summer, Evelyn drowns a wasps' nest, and while digging among the tiny corpses makes a sinister discovery. A university professor arrives unannounced at the door of an Arizona... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571196306
• ISBN13: 9780571196302
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic short story collection

This is a treasure trove of incredibly varied and haunting tales. I still can picture so many of them vividly, from mentally simple characters living in an isolated world on the north islands in G.B. to road trips through the south to find hope.

elegant and beautifully written

Wow. I never used to be a fan of short stories. Usually when I read them, I felt like I was just getting to know the characters and familiarize myself with what was going on, and then the story would end and it would be time to acclimate myself to a new one. Over the past couple of years though, I've started to change my views on short stories. I've come to realize that when written well, a short story can really make an impact. Clare Wigfall is a gifted writer, who's stories are absolutely wonderful. Each story leaves an impression on you, and each is a little different from the last. The common theme among the stories seems to be one of humanity; of characters searching for a sense of hope and freedom, that unfortunately, they rarely are able to achieve. The stories are beautifully written, and compelling. I'm keeping my eye out for more from Wigfall in the future, as she is an incredible new writer.

Absolutely Brilliant

I have been fretting about writing this review. I am not a book reviewer and when something this beautiful and elegiac comes into your hands you really want to do it justice. I shall give it a go anyway. I understand some people do not enjoy reading short story collections. I am not one of them. I find a well written short story to have much more impact than a novel. For an author to impress in a few short pages seems like the height of the craft. Clare Wigfall more than meets that criterion. She writes with such mastery that I would have expected to find she has been writing for decades. Not so - this is her debut. I don't feel I am exaggerating when I compare her to Flannery O'Connor at her best. Perhaps it is her peripatetic upbringing that allows her to evoke time and place and, particularly, local dialect with a pitch perfect ear. Wherever her talent springs from it is prodigious. The stories in The Loudest Sound span time periods from 1870 to, possibly, the present. There is a sting inherent in each of these gems and they sneak up on you gradually, some in the very last line. Clare's characters are not sunny and they are all doomed in some way yet this is far from a depressing book. Rather it is extremely thought provoking, so much so that one can only thank the universe for providing us readers with such gifted storytellers. If you love reading real literature you should read this book. Patience is not one of my virtues and I will be eagerly awaiting Clare's next offering.

Brilliant!

Phenomenal storytelling here, recalls the best of Ian McEwan and Luis Borges alike. I had the pleasure of previewing this book some weeks back and plan to keep my eye on this writer!