Joanna Thornborrow & Jennifer Coates (eds.), The sociolinguistics of narrative. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2005. Pp. vi, 299. Hb $126.00.

What do we mean by “narrative”? How is it used as descriptive term? What are its theoretical limits? What social and contextual variations can determine the production and form of situated stories? What are the core components of narrative as a discursive unit and interactional resource? How are related narrative discourse and social context articulated in the building of cultural identities? These questions – related to theoretical, contextual, and cultural issues – underlie this collection, The sociolinguistics of narrative, co-edited by Joanna Thornborrow and Jennifer Coates. The volume includes the latest achievements in theory and practice in narrative analysis from a sociolinguistic viewpoint, aiming to help us to understand “the ways in which narrative constitutes a fundamental resource in social interaction” (p. 2).