A gathering of eleven short stories, The Breathing has a consistency of voice that pulls disparate plots and settings together and turns them into a creative whole. These seemingly calm stories hold the reader's attention by their depth of passion and their strong element of suspense.

Dyma gasgliad o un ar ddeg stori fer, sy'n dwyn ynghyd sawl plot a sefyllfa wahanol. Mae'r straeon yn ymddangosiadol digyffro, ond ceir ynddynt angerdd ac elfen gref o gyffro.

Most of this collection of eleven stories is set amongst the present day realities of fragmented families and isolating employment. Even the omnipresent Welsh countryside has dumped cars, speculative builders and low-flying jet planes. Yet Mary-Ann Constantine manages to convey throughout an uneasy sense of a dangerous other-world which has always been there – glimpsed through myth and story – but not so much ‘supernatural' as a reality we dare not acknowledge. In some cases the strangeness of life, accepted, becomes a source of delight and strength (as in 'The Fisherman in my Bed' and 'On the Ground').

'The Elephant at Tregaron' is an exception, being an attempt to imagine the actual circumstances of a wild-beast-show visit to Tregaron in 1848. There is still a suggestion of mystery – a curse or foul-play – but it does not bring us into an individual's consciousness as the others do. In 'The growth of Stone' (the other story set in the past) the author explores the experiences of an early scientist whose strange geological theory gives him a tender connection with a beloved, dead master. For the time we see the stones as he does, alive and growing slowly from the earth.

At first the stories seem fragmentary, unresolved, but gradually the reader realises she is being drawn into a character's state of mind. There are clues, hints, sometimes a moment of crisis, decision or revelation, but the story's power is less in plot or explanation, rather in the intensity of the identification. In one case, ‘Missing Swallows', there is a double layer of perception. We listen to the thoughts of the observer of a strange love affair and the story itself becomes a means to an end.

This is a tantalising collection which introduces an intriguing talent.

Caroline Clark

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.