From Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories

One of the most widely read and influential writers

The absolute master of the twist in the tale

Brilliant... Hadley's style is as discreet as good tailoring

The stories sparkle...Hadley is fascinating for the way she admits a fantasy or a missed chance can be more significant than the actual events that shape a life

Tessa Hadley excels in glimpses: those small, burning memories that we never lose and which haunt as well as remind... A wonderful collection

A wholly satisfying collection of stories...Distinguished by a dry humour and prose that often surprises but is never merely showy, Sunstroke catches life on the wing and pins it, fiercely struggling to the page

A brooding, real-life collection bruised by knowledge and sustained by familiar discomfort

Really very sexy... she is the writer we didn't know we were waiting for, until she arrived

Hadley is a talented writer

In Sunstroke nothing is stable or predictable... These wonderfully elegant but rather unsettling stories may be set within the confines of the home, but they are not cosy

Absorbing and slyly revelatory

Provocative… Moshfegh presents characters who evince a flinching disgust for bodily functions and human intimacy. There’s no shortage of colourful sociopaths here… The stories draw a picture of an America that has lost its way, a bigoted, insular nation in the grip of an obesity epidemic... It’s a bracing, brilliant collection.

Moshfegh’s style is a blend of nihilism and drollery that feels hyper-contemporary in its relentless sassiness, moving in the same breath from biting human observation to casual one liners about anal sex.

Efforts to contrive a sensationalist buzz around the author are not surprising. But Moshfegh needs no extra edge. Her works make enough of an impression, and they are exceptional: dark, violent and grotesquely intelligent. This new story collection, Homesick for Another World, is probably her most accomplished work to date, and it does not scrimp on obscenity, on esoteric rituals, or on harsh, uncomfortable realities… These stories paint a stunningly unique picture of contemporary disenchantment that goes beyond glassy-eyed millennial ennui.

There’s something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh’s stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful, and even laugh-out-loud funny… Homesick for Another World is a master class in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition. But part of the unique quality of her voice, the echt Moshfeghian experience, is the way the grotesque and the outrageous are infused with tenderness and compassion. Moshfegh is our Flannery O’Connor, and Homesick for Another World is her Everything That Rises Must Converge or A Good Man is Hard to Find… The dark energy surging through these stories is powerfully invigorating.

Moshfegh’s stories are sharp, dark and often horribly funny.