Esther Woolfson
The author’s short stories have been highly regarded for a number of years. She lives in Aberdeen and works part-time in a bookshop.
http://estherwoolfson.com/
‘This book should not work, but it does, marvellously well too. Esther Woolfson’s happily eccentric memoir of domestic life with crows dances on a high wire over a landscape dotted with literary pitfalls. Sentimentality, pedantry, self-indulgence, prolixity of sentence and structure lie beneath every step she takes. She wobbles more than once, but still gives an exhilarating performance. In the end, the wire falls away and, like the birds she loves so passionately but with such clear vision, she flies.’
Irish Times on Corvus
Books by Esther Woolfson
Piano Angel
An exceptional multi-layered debut novel set in contemporary New York and Glasgow, and Hungary in the 1950s.
Daniel Blum, a successful photographer in his early sixties, is dealing with the aftermath, both practical and emotional, of the death of his brother. Following the recurrence of a brain tumour, Mark chooses to return to his native Glasgow to die, leaving behind in New York his architectural practice, and bewildered friends and family. The processes of illness oblige Mark to re-assess his life and to re-establish contact with Daniel. Much of the bitterness and jealousy in the brothers’ relationship stemmed from their friendship as teenagers with a young refugee from Hungary, Anci Goldman.
Anci, now a widow and a distinguished children’s illustrator in London, reads of Mark’s death in a newspaper, and finds her feelings of loss inseparable from her own past and from history. As she embarks on a new commission to illustrate the work of Hans Christian Anderson, she considers her childhood in post-Trianon Hungary, the precarious days of war and the siege of Budapest in 1945. She also thinks about her decision to escape by marrying Istvan Goldmann whose involvement in the secret police has remained unclear. Encouraged by her sons, she decides she will get in touch with Dan, just as he is ready, after forty years, to contact her.
‘… a brooding, intelligent work replete with ideas and gripping drama.’
The Guardian
‘… in the way she structures the story, Woolfson alternately summons-up the weight of grief and the awareness of impending death. It’s a powerful and well-told novel which tackles one of the toughest subjects.’ The Herald
October 2008
Two Ravens Press
Corvus: A Life With Birds
Esther Woolfson has been fascinated by birds since her daughter rescued a fledgling rook sixteen years ago. That rook – named Chicken – has lived with the family ever since. Other birds have taken their place in the household – a magpie, starling and parrot. Writing from a personal angle, this is a book of interlinked essays about man’s relationship with birds.
August 2008
World volume rights : Granta
US: Counterpoint, sping 2009
Poland:WAB