Things to Come and Go

Things to Come and Go is a collection of three novellas by Bette Howland, showcasing her incomparable talent with shades of Edna OBrien and Jean Rhys. It explores the complexities of family relationships, the impossibility of liberating oneself from the self, and the lament for unsaid and unsayable things. The book was first published in 1984 and is considered a haunting meditation on growing up, growing old, and being left behind.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 27 July 2023
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Things to Come and Go ,Bette Howlands final book ,is a collection of haunting urgency about arrivals and departures ,and the private ,insoluble dramas in the lives of three women.

With an introduction by Rumaan Alam ,bestselling author of Leave the World Behind .

The first novella ,Birds of a Feather ,is a daughters story of her extended ,first-generation family ,the brassy ,yak-yakking Abarbanels. Esti ,a merciless ,astute observer ,recalls growing up amid the confusions and difficulties of their history ,quarrels ,judgements ,noisy love and inescapable bonds of blood.

In the second novella ,The Old Wheeze ,a single mother in her twenties returns to her sunless apartment after a date at the ballet. Shifting between four viewpoints the young woman ,the older professor who took her out ,her son ,and her sons babysitter the story masterfully captures the impossibility of liberating ourselves from the self.

In the third novella ,The Life You Gave Me ,a woman at the midpoint of life is called to her fathers sickbed. A lament for all that is forever unsaid and unsayable ,the story is an anguished meditation on growing up ,growing old and being left behind ,a complaint against time.

Things to Come and Go showcases the incomparable talent of Bette Howland in three novellas of stunning power ,beauty ,and sustaining humour.

First published in 1984 , Things to Come and Go ,Bette Howlands final book ,is a collection of haunting urgency about arrivals and departures ,and the private ,insoluble dramas in the lives of three women.

With an introduction by Rumaan Alam ,bestselling author of Leave the World Behind .

Weight: 120g
Dimension: 198 x 132 x 10 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529035926