Margo Lanagan — Tender Morsels

Allen & Unwin 2010 Paperback, 380pp. Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. It is a tale of journeys and transformations, penetrating the boundaries between male and female, reality and myth, conscious and unconscious, temporal and spiritual, human and beast From girl to witch to woman. From boy to beast to man. From hell to heaven to the real world. Liga is a young peasant girl of no consequence. Abused by her father then raped by callous youths, she has two beautiful babies. One day she is saved by natural magic and, in exchange for her earthly life, her world is changed into her own personal Heaven, given to her by natural magic. Safe in this nurturing world, Liga builds a life of loving domesticity. Is it the idealized world of Liga's imagination, a shared unconscious, or the realm of myth and magic?, (ISBN: 9781741758160). Very Good.