The latest book from 2008's winner of the Costa Book of the Year
A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards - including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.
The hardest thing about the advent of a new collection of stories
by A L Kennedy... is the search for synonyms for 'brilliant'. Her
uncanny dialogue is as note-perfect as J D Salinger's her vision as
astutely bleak as Alice Munro's, and her ability to summon up a
society in a few strokes rivals William Trevor's
*Spectator*
A first-rate collection
*Sunday Telegraph*
A.L.Kennedy really dazzles, yet again, in her exceptional new
collection
*Independent on Sunday*
Kennedy's new stories continue the courageous anatomy of emotional
pain that has always been at the centre of her writing. Sometimes
stomach churning, bleak and humorous in turn, she is rightly viewed
as one of the most brilliant and eccentric writers of her
generation
*The Times*
If you are at all interested in contemporary fiction, this is work
you must not miss
*Richard Ford*
Kennedy, winner of the 2007 Costa Award, here offers a dozen remarkable tales. In the title story, a man finds himself ignored at a movie theater, just as he is at home. In "Edinburgh," a man remembers his last, failed love affair and bitterly longs to leave his organic shop to be with the woman in question. "Confectioner's Gold" features Tom and his wife, Elaine, who splurge on a meal at a Japanese restaurant, though they have lost their American jobs and house and have returned to England to live with her mother. In "Marriage," what looks like a regular marital spat has darker underpinnings. Most of the stories in this collection are unrelievedly somber, but in "Another," the actor who takes on Barry Wescott's starring role in a popular children's show also captures the hearts of Barry's widow and daughter. Kennedy explores her characters by shifting through first-, second-, and third-person narrative, exposing their fallacies. Verdict Although comic in spots, this brilliant collection is finally very dark, painting a pretty bleak picture of human existence. Recommended for fans of stories by Margaret Atwood or Doris Lessing. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/09.]-Amy Ford, St. Mary's Cty. Lib., Lexington Park, MD Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.
The hardest thing about the advent of a new collection of stories
by A L Kennedy... is the search for synonyms for 'brilliant'. Her
uncanny dialogue is as note-perfect as J D Salinger's her vision as
astutely bleak as Alice Munro's, and her ability to summon up a
society in a few strokes rivals William Trevor's * Spectator *
A first-rate collection * Sunday Telegraph *
A.L.Kennedy really dazzles, yet again, in her exceptional new
collection * Independent on Sunday *
Kennedy's new stories continue the courageous anatomy of emotional
pain that has always been at the centre of her writing. Sometimes
stomach churning, bleak and humorous in turn, she is rightly viewed
as one of the most brilliant and eccentric writers of her
generation -- Ruth Scurr * The Times *
If you are at all interested in contemporary fiction, this is work
you must not miss -- Richard Ford
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