In this arresting and haunting collection, Days Like Today, wars and their aftermath are in the foreground of each of the stories. In the background are Rachel Ingalls' familiars, the gods of ancient Greece; and yet without a single direct reference, it is their tragedies, duplicities and sacrifices which are evoked so piercingly here.

In the chilling revenge of "Veterans", Franklin's almost apple-pie perfect household is skewered by the arrival of Sherman, a dead-beat sponger whom Franklin had saved in the Korean war; in the novella "No Love Lost", a dystopia of such horror that survival is reduced to endless pitiless brutalities, a father feels he can offer no protection and no hope for his children's future; the meanings of eternity and survival are transmogrified into two women's exchanges about biology over the washing up in "Fertility".

Ingalls' distinctively realised characters, including a self-deluding war correspondent and a dogmatic Greek-American patriarch and the thoughtful working of these plots, create a disquiet, a tension pulled dangerously tight, to give her stories of "days like today" an epic dimension. Rachel Ingalls is too accomplished a writer to issue warnings for the 21stcentury; nonetheless, this admirably subtle collection offers a rich meditation on responsibility, fate and the extraordinary survival of love. --Ruth Petrie

one of the best short story writers alive, 22 Oct 2002
Rachel Ingalls is shamefully under-marketed. If you've never tried her, start with Black Diamonds, although this collection, drawing on Greek myth is also stunningly good. War, brutality, selfishness and censure come into conflict with hope, trust, humanity and forgiveness. I can't recommend her highly enough.

In this arresting and haunting collection, Days Like Today, wars and their aftermath are in the foreground of each of the stories. In the background are Rachel Ingalls' familiars, the gods of ancient Greece; and yet without a single direct reference, it is their tragedies, duplicities and sacrifices which are evoked so piercingly here.

In the chilling revenge of "Veterans", Franklin's almost apple-pie perfect household is skewered by the arrival of Sherman, a dead-beat sponger whom Franklin had saved in the Korean war; in the novella "No Love Lost", a dystopia of such horror that survival is reduced to endless pitiless brutalities, a father feels he can offer no protection and no hope for his children's future; the meanings of eternity and survival are transmogrified into two women's exchanges about biology over the washing up in "Fertility".

Ingalls' distinctively realised characters, including a self-deluding war correspondent and a dogmatic Greek-American patriarch and the thoughtful working of these plots, create a disquiet, a tension pulled dangerously tight, to give her stories of "days like today" an epic dimension. Rachel Ingalls is too accomplished a writer to issue warnings for the 21stcentury; nonetheless, this admirably subtle collection offers a rich meditation on responsibility, fate and the extraordinary survival of love. --Ruth Petrie

one of the best short story writers alive, 22 Oct 2002
Rachel Ingalls is shamefully under-marketed. If you've never tried her, start with Black Diamonds, although this collection, drawing on Greek myth is also stunningly good. War, brutality, selfishness and censure come into conflict with hope, trust, humanity and forgiveness. I can't recommend her highly enough.

one of the best short story writers alive, 22 Oct 2002
Rachel Ingalls is shamefully under-marketed. If you've never tried her, start with Black Diamonds, although this collection, drawing on Greek myth is also stunningly good. War, brutality, selfishness and censure come into conflict with hope, trust, humanity and forgiveness. I can't recommend her highly enough.