Madame Zero by Sarah Hall review – exceptional short stories
The Booker-shortlisted author interrogates sexuality, motherhood and our animal nature in stories that range from SF dystopias to tales of metamorphosisKate Clanchy
Friday 7 July 2017
T
he opening story of Sarah Hall’s new collection, Madame Zero, won the BBC National Short Story award. It’s called “Mrs Fox”, and in it, a young married woman undergoes a transformation. This may sound soothingly familiar: after all, David Garnett’s story “Lady into Fox” follows the same theme and was made into a film and a ballet; and then there are Colette and her cats, and Manga fox-spirits, and we’ve all heard the term foxy lady.