Joined in 2023 
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Financially, this is huge for me. Earning a living from being a writer is near-impossible in this climate, so this prize money feels unprecedented. Many thanks to Bloomsbury UK and NetGalley for sharing a free copy with me in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.] Non mi aspettavo un libro del genere. Lo volevo leggere perché mi aveva colpito la copertina, e mi sono trovata davanti una fantastica raccolta di racconti brevi che mi ha lasciato senza parole. The t-shirt is tight on Blue, but in a good way. It rides up to show a strip of stomach, her bellybutton as dark and perfect as the cherries she was eating.
An ode to the women you drunkenly befriend in club toilets, Send Nudes is an astonishing selection of short stories charting the ebb and flow of girlhood. Saba Sams' authoritative yet witty tone of voice shines through, rendering this one of the most exciting books to come out of 2022 What distinguishes her from millennial writers such as Ottessa Moshfegh, who shares her deadpan humour and visceral style, is that her characters aren’t jaded, but voracious. They’re not immune to existential angst – “Do you ever worry that nothing you do matters?” – but they get on with living, devouring new experiences with gusto. Does this herald a tonal shift in twentysomething fiction? It’s too early to tell, but it’s precisely this earthy resilience and joie de vivre that make Send Nudes so rare and uplifting.In ‘The Bread’, my favourite story, a young woman survives the days after having an abortion by baking sourdough bread – the raw and painful episodes are interspersed by lovely descriptions around her kitchen, creating an unlikely equilibrium born from a scarring experience. Stella only knows such details because Frank has told her. Frank is obsessed with his photography equipment. The day before they caught their flight out here, Stella watched him line up his camera, lenses and film canisters in the rectangle of light coming in through his bedroom window before taking a photograph of them on his phone. A roiling, raw, gut-punch of a debut collection, best read in one sitting ... I sat motionless for about half an hour after reading them; I can't wait to see what she writes next' PANDORA SYKES This included stories on toxic female friendships, jealousy, abortion, sending nudes (hence the title), seduction, desire and the complex relationships to other women (eg mothers and daughters, best friends, the ex’s).
A schoolgirl daughter of a butcher begins a relationship with a much older man and becomes enamoured, not with him but his aggressive out of control dog Petal, her wanting for flesh reflected in this creature. Quotes from the blurb describe Saba Sam's debut as "highly perceptive and intelligent" ( Nicole Flattery) and "wry, sharp and raw" ( Emma Cline). Perhaps I should have taken heed of the fact that I didn't particularly get on with these two author's short story collections (and Daddy respectively) Show Them a Good Time)... although I have to say though that whilst this was a mixed bag, I did prefer this to the two books mentioned above. At the villa, Stella sits on the veranda with the adults while Jasmine and Blue shower and get ready to go out. It’s almost like before Blue arrived: Claire leafing through a book, Frank loading a new film into his camera. He puts the previous canister carefully into his bag, and lets out a long, low whistle. Blue pulls the t-shirt over her head. It’s green, with little frills at the sleeves. On it is stitched a felt bumble bee and the words Bee Kind. How do you feel winning the BBC NSSA will shape you as a writer? Will it change your life, in any way, do you expect?My favorite stories of the collection were 'Tinderloin', 'Snakebite', 'Send nudes', 'Here Alone', 'Blue 4ever' and 'The Bread.' These tales are about passionate friendships, elusive dating rules, and learning to live in your body. Jasmine shakes her head. She’s just using you to wind me up. Blue and I have been best friends since we were practically babies. Frank lifts his camera and snaps it a few times at Stella. She isn’t sure if he’s seriously taking photographs, or if he’s performing for Blue. There’s no urgency here, no pang of desire or hunger, nobody even needs anything. In “Snakebite,” our protagonist Meg has a job at a bar, not because she needs the money she tells us but because she needs something to fill her time. She also goes to university, not because she wants to but because she doesn’t know what else to do. At one point in the story, she gives a man a blow job in a portable toilet, not because she wants to but because he’s offering cocaine in exchange. The cocaine isn’t something she really wants either, but her friend asked her to, so why not, I guess.
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