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{{infobox infobox1
|title= Ox-Tales: Water
|author= Oxfam
|buy= Yes
|borrow= Yes
|pages=208
|publisher= Profile Green
|date= July 2009
|isbn=978-1846682063
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>1846682061</amazonuk> |amazonusaznuk=1846682061|aznus=<amazonus>1846682061</amazonus>
}}
The highlight here for many will be a new work by [[:Category:Zoe Heller|Zoe Heller]]. The answer to the question of her story's title – ''What she did on her summer vacation'' – is the blunt ''grew up'', but this is an engaging and unsettling little success. Yes, we lose the theme of water to some extent, but it's a dialogue-driven short that worked for me.
The [[:Category:Michael Michel Faber|Michel Faber]] here is merely a taster from some semi-sci-fi novel to come, a teaser trailer for works elsewhere. Likewise the [[:Category:Joanna Trollope|Joanna Trollope]] sets up her next novel, and I'm sure water didn't come into it at all, but it had some merit as far as these adverts go. [[:Category:Michael Morpurgo|Michael Morpurgo]] takes the beginning of a novel due in less than two months.
Which makes the [[:Category:Giles Foden|Giles Foden]] here perhaps even more appealing. I found room for improvement in [[Turbulence by Giles Foden|Turbulence]], but Foden here gives us an unseen alternative ending – taking his framing story to places the book never went. I dare say it's the nature of publishing this might be restored in some future director's cut edition of the novel, but for now this adds kudos to this collection.
I must thank Profile Books for my review copy.
For fans of the short format, we can still recommend [[The Museum of Doctor Moses by Joyce Carol Oates]]. For more Ox-Tales your might like [[Ox-Tales: Fire by Oxfam|Fire]]. If you'd like more from David Park we can recommend [[The Truth Commissioner by David Park|The Truth Commissioner]] or if you'd like more from William Boyd, have a look at [[Trio by William Boyd|Trio]] - Sue was blown away by it.
{{amazontext|amazon=1846682061}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=68263781846682061}}
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