A collection of seven short stories dealing with relationships within friend and family circles, set in Southern Alberta, Canada, where the author lived during her childhood, reflecting on the atmospheric magic of a rich and harsh landscape, and of people living as one with nature.

Casgliad o saith stori fer yn delio gyda pherthynas cymeriadau o fewn cylchoedd teulu a ffrindiau, wedi eu gosod yn Ne Alberta, Canada, lle treuliodd yr awdures ei phlentyndod, yn adlewyrchu cyfaredd llawn awyrgylch tirwedd cyfoethog a garw, ac o bobl yn byw yn un â natur.

Ellie grows up in a small town in Canada, on the edge of the Southern Alberta Badlands. The nearby prairie is her playground; in its bleak, beautiful expanses she discovers imaginary flamingos and a real fossilized dinosaur – a find exciting enough to prompt a visit from a high-powered academic. At such moments the remote community is briefly illuminated by a sense of significance, of possibility, but it soon relapses into its quiet ways. Ellie knows she will never be glamorous like her English friend Olivia, who has visited exotic places like Penzance and gets to go to the drive-in with Lance Hamilton, the school's handsome bad boy. But their world is too small for both girls; they leave for the big city, find love, lose it again and learn that disillusionment is a condition of life, not confined to any particular place. At the end of this book of linked short stories, Ellie, now living in Wales with her son, revisits her old home and makes a tentative peace with it.

But a curious episode interrupts this saga. A group of friends (none of them familiar from earlier stories) camps in the Badlands; there is a drunken fight, and a troubled young man, Luc, wanders off alone. He is rescued, half-dead, by a mysterious lost tribe, attracts the love of two women, threatens, by his very presence, the security of his hosts, and must submit to their justice. Luc's tale occupies two stories at the very centre of the book. The first, describing the fight at the camp, works well enough on its own; the second, 'Nitana's Song', is full of the portentous sentimentality that so often afflicts those who attempt to write on Native American themes:

Anatoki was all dew and innocence. I never let her see what was in my heart. While she and Luc wove patterns of love around each other, I tried to empty my heart and my mind until I should become an empty vessel and fill myself with piety and the heavy smells and voices of summer.

Even if 'Nitana's Song' were less dreadful than it is, the digression from Ellie's story would still be a serious fault. It's a shame, because this book contains most of the ingredients of an intriguing novel. Perhaps the author will write it some day – I hope so.

Matthew Francis

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.