Chance developments : unexpected love stories
Shorn of context, unknown people look out to us from old and anonymous photographs, and each image has magical appeal. Alexander McCall Smith, one of the world's best-loved writers, has reimagined the stories of these individuals in this charming, humorous, unexpected and poignant collection. The fifteen photographs captured here are all from days long gone - some are formal in setting with a sepia tone, some are hazy family snaps. Every one of these images is powerful and intriguing in its own way and in Alexander's hands, each reveals a story of love.
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Community Centre | Checked out |
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Subject |
Families > Fiction. Short stories. Friendship > Fiction. |
Genre |
Romance fiction. Fiction. |
- ISBN: 0345811666
- ISBN: 9780345811660
- Physical Description 239 pages : illustrations
- Publisher Toronto : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2016.
- Copyright ©2015
Content descriptions
General Note: | Short stories. Originally published: UK : Polygon, 2015. |
Immediate Source of Acquisition Note: | LSC 22.00 |
Additional Information
Chance Developments : Unexpected Love Stories
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Summary
Chance Developments : Unexpected Love Stories
WITH A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR TO HIS CANADIAN READERS It is said that a picture may be worth a thousand words but an old photograph can inspire many more. In this beguiling book, McCall Smith casts his eye over five "orphaned" photographs from the era of black-and-white photography and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories, why are they smiling, what made them sad? What emerges are surprising and poignant tales of love and friendship in a variety of settings an estate in the Highlands of Scotland, a travelling circus in Canada, an Australian gold-mining town, a village in Ireland, and the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. A dapper, roguish-looking man perching on a lady's knee sparks the story of a ventriloquist and an animal handler who work in a circus, and who, under the most delightfully unexpected circumstances, fall in love. The image of a woman haloed by light in a train station becomes the lighthearted tale of a nun's decision to leave the sisterhood and discover what and whom the big city has to offer. Some will find joy and fulfillment; others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters. Romantic, wistful and poignant, Chance Developments brims with flourishes of grace and humor that could only come from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith.