Innocents

IT’S a long time since a new writer has bowed in with a collection of short stories of such superb quality as these. Miss Barker, an English girl who has won the British Atlantic Award and the first Somerset Maugham Award, has the gifts of a considerable artist: highly individual sensitivity, precision and control, a refreshing sense of structure, and a wonderful ability to fuse character and incident. Her protagonists are children. Moving with amazing penetration into their mysterious mental world, she fixes and lays bare the shock of first contact with tragedy and evil. But her title cuts both ways. Two of her “innocents” are the adult victims of malicious fiends in children’s clothing. This is a truly exciting talent, a book you should not miss.