A Faraway Smell of Lemon: Binny is doing some last minute Christmas shopping and is trying to cope with the fact her husband has just left her. It's such a simple story with a limited plot but it shares a wealth of emotion and gives us a fantastic character.

Description: Rachel Joyce's new collection "A Snow Garden and Other Stories" glides through the festive season with interlinked stories which delight and surprise. From an unexpected birth at an airport full of stranded travellers, a famous son wanting to escape the madness for a normal family dinner, to a divorced father's wish to give his two little boys the one thing they really want, a white Christmas. Five stories as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be. In A Snow Garden: Henry, divorced, disconnected from his sons, has the boys for six days over Christmas while Debbie goes on vacation. He has promised Owen, a sweet, innocent ten, and Conor, a sometimes snarky fifteen, snow; he has even, to the amusement of his sister, bought them sleds, at a marked-down price (the weather is balmy, snow is definitely not predicted). Henry is at the point of despair when he sees a snow garden, and then is once again concerned for his sanity. Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year.Of the seven linked stories in this volume, my favorite has to be “The snow garden” – the title story. It tells of a father who has temporary custody of his two sons over the holidays. He has separated from his wife, due in part, to the fact that he has experienced some mental illness in the form of hallucinations. The story portrays the difficulties and the joys, the promises and the uncertainties of being a parent. There is some terrific humor in these stories as well, which I always love, and as a special surprise, "The Boxing Day Ball" features Maureen, a young girl going to her first dance, and meeting her future husband, Harold Frye.

Trees: A two-fold story. First it's about an elderly father asking his young son to plant some trees. Then it becomes clear this is very closely related to the first story of the collection and we get some closure for Binny. A decent story in itself and very clever to interconnect the stories.

In the foreword to this book, Joyce says, 'We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe that we are not at the centre of other people's. But I love the fact that you can brush past a person with your own story, your own life, so big in your mind and at the same time be a simple passer-by in someone else's. A walk-on part.' This is the theme that binds these stories together - they intersect almost imperceptibly, but the link is there, cemented by one recurring image throughout the book, so the book feels whole and not discordant despite the seven divergent story lines.

What I also loved is how clever they were all connected. Some of the characters who had their own story, would even for just briefly appear in the next one, entwining these stories into one beautiful and unique fictional world. I also loved the mysterious girl in red coat which appears in every story, either on a commercial, or a banner or in the garden. I really liked her style, very straightforward, yet revealing the "full story" gradually through her interactions with and thoughts about others. Binny was a sympathetic character to whom I could relate, especially her aversion to cleaning house! ;) Though I gather this aversion was one symptom of her depression, resulting from repression of emotion, which becomes clear as the story unfolds. She has lost her parents not so long ago, but refused to cry or show her emotions at that time, then when her current "partner," Oliver ups and leaves her, confessing his affair with another woman who is now pregnant, she is beside herself yet still willing herself to remain stoic. The only two I did enjoy were The Boxing Day Ball, which recounted how Maureen had first met Harold Fry and that did leave me feeling all fuzzy inside but unsatisfied. I wanted to read more. I wanted to know more about how Maureen and Harold met. I wanted to see them fall in love. It also made me feel sad, knowing how things had disintegrated with them in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.I really wasn't a fan of this one, which is sad because I usually love Rachel Joyce's story and I was looking forward for a nice warm Christmas read. Out of 7 short stories, I liked only 2 of them - and even those were not fantastically great, but just better than average. Rather than dealing with her emotions by expressing them verbally, instead she chooses to throw plates, covering her kitchen floor with the "thousand blue ceramic pins" that were formed, then she "swept the splinters of china into her hands and squeezed until she felt them spike the skin." (This process reminded me a bit of "cutting" that some people do to "relieve" themselves of emotional overload/misery.) Here are stories of love, marriage, parenthood, loneliness, despair, angst, and compassion. The characters depicted are so vividly described that you feel you have known them for a long time. A quote from the forward: “We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe that we are not at the centre of other people’s. But I love the fact that you can brush past a person with your own story so big in your mind and at the same time be a simple passer-by in someone else’s. A walk-on part.”

In Trees: much to Sal’s annoyance, Oliver agrees to his elderly father’s request to bring trees. It’s New Year’s Eve, his pregnant girlfriend wants to party, but his father has decided he needs to plant twenty trees to atone. He’ll need to borrow his ex’s van, but Binny is kind, and Oliver finds himself wishing for the company and comfort of her home, what used to be his too, before he messed up his life. There is much to do, much to prepare, much to mend, but it cannot be done in a day and sometimes it is better to do one small thing.” (from “A Faraway Smell of Lemon”) Rachel's books have been translated into thirty-six languages. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' in December 2012 and shortlisted for the 'UK Author of the Year' 2014. On meeting the shop assistant, Binny discovers that for some people, cleaning can help them de-stress and refocus.In A Faraway Smell of Lemon, Binny is running from the over-zealous PTA mum (we all know one!) and finds herself in a shop she’d never normally visit. In The Marriage Manual, Alan and Alice try to make their son a gift from a DIY kit and find themselves deconstructing their marriage. In A Boxing Day Ball, a disco at the village hall proves life-changing. The stories are simple, poignant, beautifully told with a gloss of the supernatural like Christmas frosting. We are at the centre of our own stories. And sometimes it is hard to believe that we are not at the centre of other people’s.”