Pianos and Flowers

Written by Alexander McCall Smith

Narrated by Robert Ian MacKenzie

Pictures capture moments in time, presenting the viewer with a window into another life. But a picture can go only so far. Who are the people in the image?
What are their fears? What are their dreams? In the fourteen delightful tales in this collection, Alexander McCall Smith imagines the lives and loves of some of the
everyday people pictured in these twentieth-century photographs. A young woman finds unexpected love while perusing Egyptian antiquities. A family is
forever fractured when war comes to Penang, in colonial Malaysia. Iron Jelloid tablets help to reveal a young man’s inner strength. And twin sisters discover that
it’s never too late to forge a new path—even when standing at the altar.

There are big stories behind these simple images. Though at first glance they may appear to represent small moments, these photographs in fact speak
volumes, uncovering possibilities of love, friendship, and happiness. With his indomitable charm, Alexander McCall Smith takes us behind the lens to explore
the hidden lives of those photographed; in so doing, he reveals the humanity in us all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781980094067

Alexander McCall Smith

Alexander McCall Smith is the author of the highly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies. Since then he has devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world. These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the Von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.

Reviews for Pianos and Flowers

[zoes_human · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

... in which absolutely nothing happens, described at length.

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What can I say... Charming! Here Alexander McCall Smith really displays the breadth of his imagination as a writer: to take an old photograph (from a newspaper's archive) and base a short story on it without knowing anything about the people portrayed! 14 unique vignettes like that... Ordinary people with ordinary (and yet unique) lives, with ordinary human frailties and shortcomings - presented to us in the spirit of warmth and acceptance and a comforting shrug: it's no big deal to be this way and that way, we are all like that... Full of witty humor - it was simply a joy to read. If I had to choose a story that I loved the most, I would say "Iron Jelloids", and the one that made me really sad - "Urchins".Here is one of my favorite quotes:"When we look in retrospect at the saliences of our lives, we realize, sometimes with astonishment, that this is how they are shaped: a single event, a chance word of advice, an apparently minor decision of another - any of these may dictate what happens to us and what we ourselves do. In the face of this subjection to chance, the role played by free will and what we see as our own choice may seem a small one."

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Do not approach this call Smith book like you do others. This isn’t the sunshiny optimistic books we’re used to from him. Read with an open mind. He’s created short stories based on newspaper photos. Readers will find themselves making personal connections with some, and others with not much relevance. This would be a book best read in paper version. Readers will want to flip back and forth to the photographs as they read the stories.

[life2reinvent · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Sunday Times asked author Alexander McCall Smith to write some short stories for the paper. He proposed that he would look through the newspaper’s photo archive, choose photos, and create stories for the people in the picture. Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind is a delightful collection of photo-based stories. Some had been published previously in The Sunday Times, while others were written for this book.As McCall Smith writes on his website: When you are with somebody you love the smallest, smallest things can be so important, so amusing because love transforms the world, everything.Some writers would choose dramatic photos that lent themselves well for a sensationalistic approach. Others may have chosen photos of well-known people and shown a day-in-the-life moment. Fortunately, McCall Smith stuck with his strengths, choosing photos of non-remarkable people in seemingly non-remarkable situations and bringing characters to life. His other works have used rich adjectives to bring his characters and environment to life, and he does not disappoint here. Smith shows the same deftness describing these unknown figures as he did bringing Precious Ramotswe to life in his Ladies’ Detective Agency series.Each of his stories offers a view of relationships. In stories like the titular Pianos and Flowers, he looks at the characters’ relationships over the course of a lifetime. Iron Jelloids is one of the stories that focuses on one day that led to a dramatic change in the lives of the characters. Maternal Design and Students look at family relationships and how they can impact career choices, while The Dwarf Tale-Teller of the Romanian Rom looks at the difficult choice between romance and careers. Not all of the stories have happy endings, but each has a satisfying ending. Pianos and Flowers is a great choice for fans of Alexander McCall Smith. Anyone who enjoys reading short stories would enjoy this collection. It would be great for readers to carry with them to have a quick read. It is also easy to binge on multiple essays in one setting. Even though each story is inspired by different photographs, they are all infused with Alexander McCall Smith’s character-driven writing style. He publishes a story on his website each month for those who enjoy Pianos and Flowers and want to read more of his shorter works. I hope that Alexander McCall Smith continues to create and share such enjoyable collections.Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.