Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
We Don't Know What We're Doing
We Don't Know What We're Doing
Couldn't load pickup availability
Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Casgliad cyntaf o straeon yn trafod themâu mawr bywyd bob dydd gan seren newydd, ifanc sy'n meddu ar lais gwreiddiol, clust am ddeialog ac ystod eang o emosiynau. Enilydd gwobr Saesneg Llyfr y Flwyddyn 2016.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
The big themes of ordinary life inspire this outstanding début story collection from a new star on the literary scene. This is the work of a young writer with a startlingly fresh voice, an uncanny ear for dialogue and a broad emotional range. We Don't Know What We're Doing won the Wales Book of the Year award 2016.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9780571317028
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9780571317028
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- We Don't Know What We're Doing
- Awdur / Author
- Morris, Thomas
- Current Price ex VAT
- £7.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £7.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Non-Stock Item - Ordered on request
- Availability Status (CY)
- Archebir yn ôl y galw
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2016-06-01
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Faber and Faber
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 288 pages
- Size
- 1 × 1 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
A plumber sits on a bathroom floor. He’s on the edge of tears and is faced with an unknown fungus. With his work gloves off and his young son by his side, ‘We don’t know what we’re doing’, he quietly explains. This scene from ‘Clap Hands’, half way through Thomas Morris’s debut collection, is indicative of the tone of the whole book. It is a series of short stories so full of pathos, recognisable detail of the everyday, and characters we all know a version of, that it’s hard not to get instantly sucked in. We Don’t Know What We’re Doing has quite rightly been shortlisted for the 2016 Wales Book of the Year and it’s easy to see why. Thomas Morris has a talent for storytelling that is impressive in its subtlety. He skilfully avoids the pitfalls that many short-story writers fall into; he isn’t too showy and steers well away from twist endings. Instead, what he delivers is a well-paced collection of carefully told stories of everyday people and the regrets, dreams and confusions they face. Nothing is spelled out, just presented. ‘All The Boys’ is a highlight of the collection. We’re introduced to a group of friends from Caerphilly on a stag weekend to Dublin. The observations and detail are incredible – the description of a hostel bedroom the morning after the night before was so good I read it three times before going on to finish the story. What really makes the story is that Morris writes in the future tense, bringing a sense of impending drama that remains unfulfilled. Without any dramatic ending, what remains is a sense of inevitability: that this will happen and will always happen. Similarly, ‘17’ shows us more universal truths in the story of friends getting up to no good. Two tales of teenage love and teenage high jinks are woven together to form a fantastically ambiguous mix of fond nostalgia and huge sadness. Morris is nothing but consistent in his presentation of characters, always without judgement, never guiding the reader too closely, and ‘17’ is a great example of this. A constant character in the collection is the town of Caerphilly. It grounds the stories with a very real sense of place, and Caerphilly Castle looms over the stories ambiguously, sometimes the setting for sadness and other times a symbol of good. In ‘Strange Traffic’, an elderly romancer sums this ambiguity up neatly: ‘Caerphilly ... lay in a basin, and mountains and hills surrounded the town 360 degrees. Some days it felt as if they were closing in on him, like the seagulls going after the bread, but today the hills seemed to promise space, a vastness and a calmness, even when things were crazy-mad down here.’ ‘Nos Da’ ends the collection in a way that ensures it will stay with you. In a version of Caerphilly where death is not the end, we’re presented with memories as if they’re films, and regrets and bad choices as if they’re eternal. Morris merges the subtle realism of the rest of the book with elements of science fiction to create a story that is as impressive as it is heart-breaking. This is an incredibly strong collection and one worth multiple revisits. It’s impossible to get to the end of the book without feeling that yes, we actually don’t know what we’re doing. Any of us.
Share
