Author:Gerard Woodward
The quotidian and the surreal inhabit the same vivid and perplexing world in this collection of stories. Full of his trademark mixture of humour, pathos, disappointed families and dysfunctional lives, they include an ostracised small-town puppeteer, a commuter who fails to recognise his ex-wife, a bereaved academic working in the college kitchens after his part in a sex scandal and a family who wake up to find their caravan has been mysteriously transported overnight...
He writes with subtlety and skill... beautifully manipulating the language which veers and soars from the vernacular to the high-flown and summoning characters that are at once believable and sympathetic
—— Daily TelegraphExtremely readable and enjoyable
—— GuardianBrilliantly unsettling
—— ObserverIn clean, uncomplicated prose inlaid with images of striking lyricism, Woodward explores the bizarre possibilities of ordinary people's lives
—— Sunday TelegraphThe down-to-earth dialogue and the deadpan delivery remain doggedly realistic, and some stories retain not only the ring of truth but also its open-ended structure
—— Times Literary SupplementUncanny, absurd and at times macabre, these stories magically combine a poet's eye for imagery with a novelist's complexity of theme
—— Financial TimesThe author's humour often glimmers quietly and there is surreal black comedy
—— Hugo Barnacle , Sunday Timespungent and memorable
—— William Leith , The ScotsmanAn enjoyable collection.
—— Anthony Cummins , Daily TelegraphGerard Woodward falls squarely between the comic lunacy of American short-form virtuoso George Saunders and the everyday rhapsodies of Raymond Carver ... Woodward is actually at his best when he's knee-deep in the ordinary
—— Time OutAt last, Galloway's stories are back in print in one collection...savagely accurate, engaging and funny, she is one of our great contemporary writers
—— Independent on SundayA testament to the sharp eye and shrewd brain of Janice Galloway, one of Scotland's finest writers
—— The HeraldA writer of passion and virtuosity
—— Scotland on Sunday