Beyond the Blue Mountainsis a collection of short stories by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively.
The fourteen warmly humorous stories in Beyond the Blue Mountains range from the fantasy of Scheherazade to a dazzling example of chaos theory, depicting in exquisite prose the subtle but significant events that go to create everyday experience.
'The fourteen brief stories in Beyond the Blue Mountains reveal Penelope Lively at her most polished and perceptive. "The Slovenian Giantess" is a condensed masterpiece' Sunday Times
'Penelope Lively is a genius and this collection is a joy. In any circumstances, from a wedding to a Christmas shopping expedition, Lively finds an emotional dilemma, engaging the reader as thoroughly as if they were reading a novel and leaving them speechless' Daily Mail
Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art; Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander, Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt; Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked; The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences; Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award. She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in 2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.