Sudden Traveler: Stories

By Sarah Hall

“[Hall is] beloved by readers for her gorgeous lyricism and ability to delve into unexpected and illuminating tales of what it means to be human." -- Stylist (UK) 

Featuring her signature themes of identity, eroticism, and existential quest, the stories in Sarah Hall’s third collection travel far afield in location and ambition—from Turkish forest and coastline to the rain-drenched villages of Cumbria.

The characters in Sudden Traveler walk, drive, dream, and fly, trying to reconcile themselves with their journeys through life, death, and love. Science fiction meets folktale and philosophy meets mortality. 

A woman with a new generation of pacemaker chooses to shut it down in the Lakeland, the site of her strongest memories. A man repatriated in the near east hears the name of an old love called and must unpack history’s dark suitcase. From the new world-waves of female anger and resistance, a mythical creature evolves. And in the woods on the border between warring countries, an old well facilitates a dictator’s downfall, before he gains power. 

A master of short fiction, Sarah Hall opens channels in the human mind and spirit and takes us to the very edge of our possible selves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062959249

Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall was born in Cumbria. She is the prizewinning author of six novels and three short story collections. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, Edge Hill Short Story Prize, among others, and the only person ever to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice. 

Book preview

Dedication

H’e

Epigraph

But somehow, somewhere, sometime soon

Upon this wild abandoned star

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

M

The Woman the Book Read

The Grotesques

Who Pays?

Orton

Sudden Traveler

Live That You May Live

Acknowledgments and Thanks

About the Author

By the Same Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

M

A warm, damp, starless night in the city. The last night of summer. Darkness moves like an ocean above the roofs and streetlights. The wind is directionless, confusing the trees, loosening sidings and tiles. Creatures of flight have put themselves away, under the eaves, down chimneys; raptors are tucked behind beveled glass spires. The windows of houses stand open, venting air, exhaust, and the fume of falling leaves. The lungs of sleepers are evolving. It is the hour between prayers.

She wakes. As she turns in bed, away from the body on the other side, she notices a pain. It’s low down, on the right-hand side, a soreness like appendicitis. But she has no appendix, only a surgical cleft in the skin, left over from childhood. The organ was removed after rupture and septicemia; her body flooded with poison, the school nurse having told her twice to go back to class, the ambulance moving sluggishly down the valley’s roads. Lucky to be alive, the surgeon said, once her blood had clarified. Her father bought a new car while she was recovering, the first soft-top in the village, and he drove it into the hospital grounds, sounding the horn outside her window. Who can that be, her mother asked. She was driven home triumphantly, lilting to the side, exhilarated, the wind racing through her hair.

So began a life’s contract of survival and compensation. The metal breath of the tractor as it rolled, inches from her, down the steep upper field, its brake having failed, crushing her father under its huge rear wheel. The estate’s payout for the loss of its manager, enough to fund law school and a basement flat in London. The motorcycle accident when she was nineteen, riding pillion with a boyfriend who’d told her that he loved her, who visited the spinal unit once, saw the halo screwed to her scalp to immobilize her neck, and didn’t come again. Six months later she saw him in a bar, or rather he saw her, un-killed, risen, beautiful, faint red holes along her brow. The ankle broken from falling in Appalachia: airlifted down off the trail after three days, unconscious, dehydrated, bone exposed through the skin, clean as an arrowhead, the rescue message with her GPS coordinates delayed by weather. Every glass of water after, a minor ecstasy. Events to chart pain’s signature. Reaction to malaria prophylactic, transit of a kidney stone, wisdom tooth extraction. The night she was forced, while her mother was away in the hospital. The morning she was forced again. She has always left room for worse, the unimaginable, and what may follow.

Comparatively, this is not severe. But it is unlike anything before. She sits up, holds her stomach. What? Not cramps; her periods are insignificant, her body having shed its viable eggs the decade before. Not a virus, though it’s the weakest hour of immunity, the time sickness usually comes. She lies back down, tries not to wake Ilias, and waits for it to pass. It is the most peculiar sensation. A hot zipping feeling under the skin, moving from hip to belly. No, unzipping.

Her lover stirs, but continues to sleep. Tick, tick, tick, across the abdomen, as if sutures are being unstrung. She tenses, resists, but then allows it, expects it, as one might surrender to contractions. Heat radiates up her torso, and beads of sweat begin to trickle underneath her breasts. The sheets dampen. After an hour, the discomfort fades. She gets up, opens the window wider, drifts back to sleep inside a turbine of cool air.

In the morning, nothing remains, though she feels a little clumsy, knocks her water glass on the bedside table and soaks a book. She gets up to shut the window, collects the yellow leaves blown in. Ilias is awake, propped on an arm, watching. Her legs are stiff, uncooperative as she bends. She does not feel usual. Nevertheless, they make love, on their sides, facing each other, an angle of great pleasure and intimacy. Memories of the night interfere. She struggles. After a few minutes he realizes, moves on top, comes on her belly, and apologizes. Say you’re not sorry, she says, and smiles. I’m not sorry. But your sheets? No, it was me, she says. I think I overheated. He kisses her. Re-enters. Wetter. These are acceptable risks; from the start, they have not been careful. The blood is loaded in the right place; her nerves are ready. This time, release. She cries into his shoulder, leaves a mark.

She lets him make the coffee in her kitchen, black, bitter. They dress, talk for a few minutes, but there is no time. She takes the stairs down with him. As he leaves, he turns and waves, looks up. He loves the building, its sculpted brutalist concrete, the distinctive middle tower. He is young, works for an architect, low in the chain, but is gifted, she suspects. The firm is responsible for the fast-altering skyline, the smoked-glass high-rises at the sea end of the river, which mirror the marsh they are deposing. Twice a week, more often lately, they meet in a bar for a drink, spend the night. It’s enough.

The street is littered with bright leaves, pulp, and small branches. There’s a cider aroma, and the smell of latrines, flushed gutters, sodden fur. She walks to her office, remembering other autumns, their lucidity, bronze northern light. When she arrives, her secretary looks agitated, hands her a message, a request that would not usually be filtered through, and a prepared file. I know this place, the secretary tells her, it’s called the Haven. My sister and I lived there for six months. Please look. She takes the held-out file. Thank you, Katya.

The next night, the pain returns, around the same time, folding her double. She is alone, and it is worse. The bands of muscles seem to be spasming, pulling her midriff tight, pulling it apart. She could almost put her fingers in. And a definite fever, fugue-like, tubercular, the sheet sticking to her back. Not nausea but a desire to retch, as if her tongue is curling down her throat. Is it the flu? Has she picked up an infection? What other organ has gone wrong? She shifts position, gradually, inch by inch, one side, then the other, but she cannot find relief. In the morning she will call the doctor. She tries to think. Of the date of her last period, date of her last screenings, the year her mother died. Of relevant stories, misaligned pregnancies, tumours, anomalies. She tries to think.

When dawn arrives the riven feeling is again passing, and the delirium. She falls asleep, misses the alarm. She is woken by the annunciation of bright mid-morning. It is a busy day, a partners’ meeting, lunch with an old friend who has moved back after divorce. In the afternoon she visits the Haven, which has been bought—it is unclear by whom—and is under threat of closure. At the shelter are women who have been abused, tormented, even shot. The children play families with each other, swap stories like war trophies, are careful with their names. A girl with pale-green eyes, a teenager, holds a toy dog to her chest, an item much too young for her. Black and white, like a Border sheepdog. She will not put it down. The staff are tired, and overworked, and also scarred. She accepts the case, her first pro bono work in years. Back at the office her secretary hugs her, awkwardly, and thanks her. The day ends. The absence of pain is a place of forgetting, a country far away. She does not call the doctor.

That evening, she meets Ilias again. A new bar, above a sex shop. The walls are somber navy, the woodwork charcoal, fashionably, darkly Victorian. Ineffectual candles pulse in the gloom. The drinks are exquisite, herbal spirits, very strong, mixed by muscled barwomen in leather aprons. They flirt, enjoy each other, as they always do. But a certainty is forming in her mind. It will—it must—stop soon. He holds her hand across the table, uninhibited. For the first time in a long while she feels emotion heeling in her. He has such kindness, openness. He seems full of blue light, in the

Reviews for Sudden Traveler

[reallifereading · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“We are, all of us, sudden travelers in the world, blind, passing each other, reaching out, missing, sometimes taking hold.”

Reviewing a collection of short stories isn’t an easy task. With a few exceptions, short story collections tend to feel like they need to be read over a longer time than it takes to read a book. For example, read one story, take a break and go read something else. Then come back to another story after that breather.

And in a collection such as this slim volume by Sarah Hall, a lot of breaks are needed, as the stories take on such varied settings, some weird and otherworldly and a bit experimental, some more rooted in the every day. Is that why the title is such? That as we read the stories, we are, too, “sudden travelers”, having to switch our perspectives completely?

For these stories are set in Turkish forests, Cumbrian villages, some that seem more like dreamscapes with weird transformations.

There is no doubt that Hall is a great writer. The stories are full of beautiful writing. For myself, as I am not much of a reader of more experimental turns, I was more drawn to her more ‘real’ stories like Orton and, especially the penultimate story, Sudden Traveler. And her writing pulled me in deep to those stories, tears falling, even, for one of them.

So while I stumbled during a couple of stories, unsure of where these pieces were leading me, the end result was worth it.

[mahsdad · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I got this from the Early Review program in exchange for an honest review. Honestly this one just didn't work for me. My half-star isn't so much about the quality of the work, its my indication that I didn't finish reading it. I just couldn't connect with these stories and after the first couple, I decided to Pearl-rule it, and put it back on the shelf. Your mileage may vary.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Stylized stories that are often thick with symbolism. The title story is probably the best. Unfortunately the narrative interest in most of the stories is only fleeting. This was disappointing since I really fell into the story Sarah Hall built for "The Electric Michelangelo".

[jnmegan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sudden Traveler is a collection of seven short stories by award-winning Sarah Hall, whose short fiction has been justly described as luminous and erotic. This small sampler demonstrates her flexibility with styles and subjects that vary from the deeply moving and accessible to the more obscure and elusive. Interwoven in each piece is a recurrent theme of women’s experience in snapshots of important stages of life, both as it is perceived by the women themselves and by men who can only guess about them from a remove. Some of the stories feature fantastical elements with prose that is heavily metaphoric and lyrical. Others are more realistically grounded and are thereby starker in their depictions of violence and physical frailty. As with all collections, some of the stories are stronger than others, and a few cross the border into pretentiousness with Hall’s sometimes excessive use of perplexing symbolism. Still, Sarah Hall is obviously a wonderful and creative writer with a strong message and the skill with which to convey her point of view. Sudden Traveler is a nice short introduction to her work and will encourage an open-minded reader to seek out her other offerings.Thanks to the author, Custom House/William Morrow, and Library Thing for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[seongeona · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A few short stories that are more like sensations, very stream-of-consciousness, inner thoughts. Most seem set in Turkey or thereabouts, for some reason, and are focused on upper classes. Travel theme pertains to change of one sort or another. I enjoyed the first story "M" which was mysterious, sensual, surprising, powerful, and freeing. The second story, "The Woman the Book Read," was more like a simple and unremarkable sentence drawn out into excruciatingly endless and unnecessary descriptions. The same with the third story, "The Grotesques," which, unlike the second story, didn't even lead me to believe it was going in a different direction. "Who Pays?" was the most enjoyable for me, being exotic, atmospheric, mysterious, magical, powerful, maybe even vengeful. "Orton" was once again a simple sentence drawn out overly long and detailed to the point of annoyance. We know what will happen from the start but we don't care. "Sudden Traveler" is much the same and whilst it is the story from which the title of the collection comes, I felt the first story more thoroughly captured the essence of both "sudden" and "traveler." Finally, "Live That You May Live" is alive with color and movement and every fairy tale under the sun as a metaphor for what we hope/dream/yearn for our children, or at least in a quiet moment whilst we gaze at them sleeping and wonder what will become of them.I received my copy from the publisher, free of charge, via LibraryThing Early Reviewers in exchange for my honest review.

[shadow123_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A perfectly cromulent, but not outstanding, collection of short fiction.Those who read for plot are going to be sorely disappointed here - these stories are about exploring language and identity and are of the sort where people do a lot of sitting around and thinking about things instead of doing them. Which I often love, and which can work really well, if the writing is great - but the writing here is only okay. A book like this relies on beautiful prose and stunning turns of phrase, and I didn't find those here. But it's an okay book that I'm sure will find fans.

[devlindusty · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I totally had mixed feelings reading this book of short stories. I am not usually a fan of short story collections bit as I got deeper into the book I absolutely fell in love with the variety of stories.

[theportports · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to fall into this collection of stories, but,sadly, I struggled. I'm not sure why, as this book is right up my readerly alley, but, nonetheless, I finished it with more relief than was probably warrented. I think it may be more appropriate to those more acclimated to the short story form. I want to like short stories, but too often these stories seemed too nebulous, as if in the process of making the story short something vital got left unsaid.

[sanyamakadi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that is read as if through layers of gauze. The words are understandable, but the meaning and context starts off fuzzy. Sometimes as the story progresses layers of gauze are removed, making the story, or the characters, or the connections between each, more clear, and sometimes by the end of of the story all of the gauze has been removed and everything makes sense. But not always. I am not a huge fan of this type of writing, that leaves me feeling cloudy and muddled by the end, but I am still giving it four stars because (1) the writing was superb; and (2) for the stories that I liked, I liked a lot. The two I liked the best were "Orton" and "The Woman the Book Read." "Orton" was the only story (in my opinion) which was written with all the gauze lifted from the beginning. While the plot was still fantastical, the writing was clear and the reader could easily follow the who, what, where, and why. "The Woman the Book Read" started out fuzzy, and stayed that way through most of the story, but towards the end it was literally as if the reader could see one piece of gauze lifted at a time, as with each sentence the characters and their relationships and history became clearer, until all was understood and the story ended.

[hairball_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Calling Sudden Traveler a sideways #metoo revenge collection would be really reductive, but not entirely inaccurate; the first piece set the tone in such a way that it made me look at even the more (seemingly) anodyne pieces in a different light. Or perhaps I kept waiting for a violent punch line at the turn of every page. The overarching violence of the stories: men wanting things from women that the women don't wish to give. In other words: the usual story, but phantasmagorically told.

[gryphon8kl · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to find much to say about this collection of stories, largely because most of them can be summarized as 'character sits around having a not particularly interesting or unusual flashback while nothing much happens in the present, then the story ends in a way that's presumably supposed to be symbolic or significant.' Even in the stories where something happens, the way the stories are written either make it unclear just what is going on half the time or significant details are missing from the story. As an example of the latter, the book flap describes one story with 'And in the woods on the border between warring countries, an old well facilitates a dictator's downfall before he gains power,' but nothing in the story itself marks the character in question as a potential dictator.There's an audience for this book, I'm sure, but I'm most definitely not it.

[seeword · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It's rare that I read a book of short stories and don't find at least one that I really like. Sadly, I didn't like any of the seven in this collection. The blurb says "Science fiction meets folklore and philosophy meets morality." I thought that sounded intriguing but for me the "meeting" was like a bad blind date--I couldn't wait for it to end.I received this book as part of LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.

[kadia-722203 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.The seven short stories in this book delve deeply into the inner thoughts of the main character in each story. The thoughts are often disturbing - despair, a mother's death and a child's innocence, revenge for the taking of innocence, revenge for the violence visited upon women and taking control of the future.The writing is beautiful and magical - heartbreak, pain, depths of sorrow - along with birds that will never fly in this world, deathly cold water, and lost love. Only 124 pages, but not a quick read. The stories have followed me and reappeared in unexpectedly in my thoughts.

[bale_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am not a big fan of short stories. I often feel they are incomplete, that they end too soon. (Full disclosure, I love a good tome.) Sarah Hall's work is different. Whatever the length of her story, or subject matter, each piece - each phrase - is complete. Her words work together like an exquisite piece of art. Line by line, story by story, one feels ultra satisfied and powerfully moved, such is the quality of her writing. Hall is truly a master of the written word.

[duffdaddy-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I won this book from the Early Reviewers giveaway on LibraryThing. I've read other collections of stories by Sarah Hall and have always been impressed. Sudden Traveler was no different. Though I didn't necessarily like all the stories in the collection, I appreciated her skill as a writer in all the stories. Her choice of similes and metaphors is fresh and dead-on accurate. My favorites included The Women the Book Read, The Grotesques, Orton and Sudden Traveler. In TWTBR, I particularly appreciated the way Hall led me to believe the story was about an ex-lover. I was suddenly shocked by the revelation of who the object of the narrator's obsession was. In Orton, I was made uncomfortable (in a good way) thinking about having to make that decision for myself. Hall's descriptive similes in ST were at their best. Overall, I would recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys a well-written story that will make you think. Nice job, Sarah!

[blbera · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This lovely collection of stories by Sarah Hall is beautifully written. Hall creates a vivid sense of place, whether it's an enchanted forest or a rain-soaked cemetery. The stories are mostly about women: mothers, daughters, widows. My favorite one, the titular story, is about a young woman sitting in a car in the rain, watching her father and brother clear an area for her mother's grave. Wondering who will attend her funeral when she dies, "You do not understand yet, who you will lose, who you will become, who will arrive. We are, all of us, sudden travelers in the world, blind, passing each other, reaching out, missing, sometimes taking hold." Whether the women are passing by or taking hold, they all have memorable stories.

[ireneattolia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

short story collections are more often than not a mixed bag, and this was the case here. the writing was pleasant enough, but several of the stories left me wanting more.

[mattdocmartin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

absolutely not my cup of tea. Descriptive text felt all over the place, and stories that seemed to drag on with no real meaning. Warning to people: A LOT of these stories have VERY depressing themes. I do give it credit for being very female focused.. The cover is beautiful, so there is that.

[christiana5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this collection of short stories from the Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. I'm not a big reader of short stories, so I'll caveat my review with that - I tend toward bigger books. These were all interesting glimpses into various lives, mostly of women. There was an overarching tone of darkness/death to many of them, though I didn't find it particularly depressing - more thought-provoking. Some were confusing and difficult to follow. I liked Orton the best.

[wickabod · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's always trick or treat when you dip into a collection of Sarah Hall's stories: you're never quite sure what you'll get.These stories -- like all her stories -- are smart and edgy and unpredictable. She never lets you relax and her stories always take you to unexpected places, and I like that. Her stories are dark and unsettling, and often very funny indeed. Not all of the stories were entirely successful for me, but each one had strong writing and an unexpected delight or two. "M" and the title story were my favorites.All in all, a fine collection. Recommended.

[danfango-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't think I have ever given a book one star, so Sudden Traveler gets the first one. This was awful. Mumbo jumbo stream of consciousness. Made no sense. What's the point of writing this book? Yes, at times you could sense a certain mood, and then it just disappeared. Poof.

[wevans-3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sarah Hall's prose is heady and intelligent. These dense stories feel restless, always in motion, internal or external. The opening story, "M," is a standout - inexorably drawing the reader deeper into its uncomfortable darkness, without one wasted word. This collection burns with a fierce, persistent light of righteous anger and uncompromising empathy for its characters.

[thriftyserendipity · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think I was expecting a little more out of this book of short stories. I like the strong female characters and the diversity in the stories but I feel it was lacking somewhere. Overall a decent read.

[phoenixcomet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sarah Hall's collection of 7 short stories features different levels of female empowerment through life, death and love. The story "Orton" stands out. Other stories such as "Who Pays?" I would not have understood without re-reading it, but once I did I realized how great it was. But the stories are short, the prose engaging and if you pay attention, totally worth the read.

[mykl8s · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Seven stories, each one a read. Hall shows she is a slave to no genre, with some tales so real and believable, some fantastic and wonderful, some confusing, mysterious, open to interpretation. This is a small book, so I decided to read slowly, savor each one. That did not happen - I couldn't put the book down. Savoring had to wait for the second reading.

[gailnyoka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When we inhabit these stories, we are sudden travelers through time, through depths of emotion, through the beauty of language. In this collection, there are lines to take your breath away. Each story is a flight of imagination, a surprise.

[alwright1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sarah Hall's Sudden Traveler features one of my favorite things about short stories: writing that can set you down in the middle of a place, or a person, or a mood and connect you to the essential in a matter of sentences. While some of my favorite stories in this collection were mythic in tone, most were grounded in the personal. Feelings of separation or detachment permeate the collection, exploring the individual in relationships, mostly in times of leave-taking. While I appreciated the fantastical elements and the strong writing, there was a time or two when an ending was so ambiguous that I felt I must have not followed the plot, and went back to see what I had missed, only to find I still didn't have enough clues to understand. However, the collection finished strong with the excellent title piece and poem of a bed time story for grown up girls.

[gbelik_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I can’t say I enjoyed these short stories. With the first story “M”, I kept waiting for a surge of understanding, which never came. With several others, I felt I was waiting for something to happen and resolve the whole, but was disappointed. I think maybe these stories were just a little too literary for me