11 Mar 2013 15:22:59
In "Shining a Light" a young woman explores Prague with a group of Serbs she befriends at an open-air film screening in a park. The loss of her baggage at the airport is slowly juxtaposed against that of her companions: their country, their homes, their family and friends.
Of the 10 stories, the two of significant length are the title story and "Stardust Nation". The former is the tale of an ad man with a hunchback; a modern-day Quasimodo in a suit who sees himself as "lost property, someone waiting to be claimed". The latter is a disturbing account of stolen memories; one man who appropriates the identity of another, the other adrift in a "cognac-soaked trance".
Black Vodka is a slight volume, but there's no arguing with the poetry of Levy's prose. Packing the "depth charge" Michèle Roberts describes in her introduction to the collection, Levy's pen is a volatile weapon.
