James Gault reviews Beyond – A short story collection by  Alanah Andrews.
 
Alanah Andrews is one of the cleverest writers I have read in a long time. This collection of twenty short stories stands out for the intelligent innovation in their construction and narrative techniques. Among these outstanding pieces of writing, you’ll find some very short pieces, and some using a poetic structure. I would have called the latter poems, but that author doesn’t make this claim. The outstanding surprise for me however was the two ‘reverse stories’, which you read from top to bottom and then from bottom to top.
 
Innovation does not always mean good, but in this case it is relevant to the communication task and it goes with some solid and fascinating story telling. The ‘reverse story’ technique, for example, is used to great effect to illustrate two opposing views of the same issue. All the stories embody the essential elements of good short stories: economic use of words, instantaneous characterisation, and the little surprise twist at the end.
Under the headline of ‘Beyond’, the author manages to address and make insightful comments on a range of themes: death, justice, apocalypse, ecology, lost love, remembrance, the holocaust.
 
This is a little well-written book of exceptional variety. A book you can dip into again and again, just for a few moments at a time! A good buy for your bedside or coffee table!   
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