Naomi Wood, an English author not yet well known in the US, has written three historical novels, including the well-regarded Mrs Hemingway, about the four wives of Ernest Hemingway.
During the Covid lockdowns, when her kids were confined at home and she had less time to herself, she turned to the short story form. The result, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, is an astonishingly good debut collection that often incorporates the bizarre, life-altering reality of the pandemic into the plots.
