Two Great Stories from Review of Australian Fiction

I’m just delighted to be receiving one of the Review of Australian Fiction’s Reading Fellowships. And it started a few days ago with Volume 22 and two wonderful stories by Angela Slatter and Angie Rega. Two fantasy stories, no less.

Angela Slatter’s A Little Mermaid, in Passing tells the well known Little Mermaid story from the point of view of the sea witch. We learn about the way in which she views the young women who come to her. She laments their attitude, the way in which they are prepared to give up so much for men. I empathised. But then Slatter turns the tale a little, and dives into the complicated and sometimes cruel relationship between mother and daughter, and between sister and sister.

Angie Rega’s story, The Fairy Midwife, is also about the relationship between women. This time, a woman yearning for a child and a grotesque and mercurial fairy midwife. The tale is full of sorrow, desperation, and revenge. The ingredients in the best of stories.

Thank you RAF! I loved them both.