Rachel Seiffert — Field Study

Random House 2004 Hardback, 280pp. With a range of settings as diverse as the Scottish seaside and post-Communist eastern Germany, Seiffert uses the locations of these stories to bring her characters into relief. Powerfully evoking our human need for connection, Field Study takes us on journeys that demonstrate both the fragility and adaptability of our emotions. From a family that fears upsetting their little boy by moving house, to a wife who refuses to accept her husband's condemnation of his own father; from a student conducting his scientific graduate studies of eastern European pollution to a wartime mother's escape as she carries her children across a swollen river, Seiffert isolates and captures not only the underlying and compelling sorrow of love, but also the joy and desire for that love that keeps us alive. DJ. (ISBN: 9780434011858). Good.