Praise for This Way To Departures
Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
A recommended book for 2019 on the books blog Never Imitate.
One of Catherine McNamara and Dan Coxon’s books of the year in The Lonely Crowd.
Selected by writer and reviewer (the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, and Times Literary Supplement) Ian Critchley as one of his books of the year.
‘Mannheim exposes the cracks in the facade of the American dream.’
– The Guardian
“Every year I come across one or two story collections which leave me reeling at what can be accomplished in the space of a few pages; this year Linda’s new release, This Way to Departures, is one of them and it only took me a few pages to sense that.”
– Isabel Costello, The Literary Sofa
“Wherever she goes, and however grim things get, Linda Mannheim retains her compassion and irrepressible curiosity about what makes people do the things they do, and the ways we damage and heal each other.”
– Chris Power, author of Mothers
‘A rare equilibrium of story, setting, voice and empathy, fully recommended.’
– Catherine McNamara, author of The Cartography of Others
‘There’s anger, righteous indignation and sorrow in these stories, relatable characters and situations and solid connections with the real world that belie its theme of dislocation.’
– The Herald Scotland
‘I was constantly impressed by Mannheim’s invention and the quality of her prose.’
– Dan Coxon, The Lonely Crowd
‘pierces each topic with intrepid yet empathetic succinctness … I couldn’t be more impressed with the quality and style of her writing. This is a gratifying and recommended read.’
– Never Imitate
‘The reason I’m a fan of Mannheim’s writing is the clarity of her eye. She truly sees everything and presents her observation to the reader in a phrase that captures it deftly. ’
– What I Think When I Think About Reading
‘The work of an increasingly ambitious and confident writer, striking off in a range of new directions.’
– Splice
‘no time or place is erased, nothing is forgotten’
– Max Dunbar
‘a series of stories which are utter tour-de-forces, sweeping the rug out from under you and hitting you where it hurts. It is sucker punch after sucker punch’
– Fallen Figs
Praise for Above Sugar Hill
Longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.
'Wonderful, affecting stories.'– Irenosen Okojie, author of Speak Gigantular
'Linda Mannheim’s smouldering vignettes of New York life are both achingly sad and beautifully wrought. These are stories to re-read and savour.'
– Stuart Evers, author of Your Father Sends His Love
'The stories in Above Sugar Hill share a strong sense of territory but at the same time the buildings in them are vandalised and neglected; they burn and crumble . . . The children are as vulnerable as the buildings in which they live.'
– Alison Moore, author of The Lighthouse
'You’re carrying Washington Heights around inside you, and you are the site of every story; the sliver of truth behind every story, every observation, is lodged in you like a splinter.'
– Minor Literatures
'Mannheim has done something very difficult here. She’s made stories that are as evocative on a sentence level as they are in terms of narrative. She’s made stories to which location is integral, but she has done that without limiting the scope and impact of her characters. She’s made stories that will genuinely make you laugh and cry. A definite contender for collection of the year.'
– The Cadaverine
'There is real passion and anger in her description of her connection to her neighborhood.'
– Necessary Fiction
'Mannheim’s is a rare voice, reminiscent of the wonderful Jo Ann Beard’s in The Boys of My Youth or Gloria Naylor’s in The Women of Brewster Place, a voice the reader wants to hear again. What she looks at, she really sees.'
– Book Oxygen
'It is a collection of lives and people. Yet, when you add in the dimension of time and place you get a nuanced and rich history of said place, an account of something that we think of as static.'
– Kaleidoscope Sounds
'It is poetic prose at its finest.'
– Sabotage Reviews