From the time she was a child Annie Colville has seen the dead - they're always dressed in chocolate brown, and they want her to deliver messages, even if the messages are useless ("like 'at, see. He is, in 'e. 'Xactly like that. So catch 'im and tell 'im eh" or "and he goes about... and he goes about") and the recipients of some of those messages are also long gone.
Annie is mourning the disappearance of her beloved husband, Evan Bees. He didn't come to see her clad in brown, and his absence is something that stalks her even as she tries to pass on the messages, the only thing that will stop the dead from pestering her.
The Extra Large Medium (the title comes from a man who billed himself that way, not from Annie's girth) alternates her story with perspectives from her outrageous mother, Madeleine (who was such a free spirit she doesn't know who Annie's father was), observations from an archaeologist about the new character on their dig, and other random documents, all of which add up to an ecclectic and interesting multi-dimensionality.
The Extra Large Medium has been on one of my many to-read lists for a good eighteen months (I'm pretty sure I saw it at Heathrow in 2007) - I'm glad I read it, and enjoyed it enough, but I'm not particularly compelled to track down anything else Slavin's written. - Alex
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