Author:Tessa Hadley
Discover this brooding collection of short stories from one of Britain's finest writers. A world where everyday life crackles with the electricity sparking between men and women, between parents and children, between friends.
A son confesses to his mother that he is cheating on his girlfriend; a student falls in love with her lecturer and embarks on an affair with a man in the pub who looks just like him. Young mothers pent-up in childcare dream treacherously of other possibilities; a boy becomes aware of the woman, a guest at his parents' holiday home, who is pressing up too close against him on the beach.
Hidden away inside the present, the past is explosive; the future can open unexpectedly out of any chance encounter; ordinary moments are illuminated with lightning flashes of dread or pleasure. These stories about family life are somehow undomesticated and dangerous.
'She is the writer we didn't know we were waiting for, until she arrived' Anne Enright, Guardian
Few writers give me such consistent pleasure
—— Zadie SmithShe has such great psychological insights into human beings, which is rare. She is one of the best fiction writers writing today
—— Chimamanda Ngozie AdichieTruly absorbing... a masterful yet understated read... More please
—— Sunday ExpressBrilliant... Hadley's style is as discreet as good tailoring
—— IndependentThe 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
—— MetroTessa Hadley excels in glimpses: those small, burning memories that we never lose and which haunt as well as remind... A wonderful collection
—— Brian Henigan , HeraldA 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
—— Peter Parker , Sunday TimesA brooding, real-life collection bruised by knowledge and sustained by familiar discomfort
—— Eileen Battersby , Irish TimesReally very sexy... she is the writer we didn't know we were waiting for, until she arrived
—— Anne Enright , GuardianHadley is a talented writer
—— Scotland on SundayIn 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
—— Clare Staunton , Time Out, Book of the WeekAbsorbing and slyly revelatory
—— Hepzibah Anderson , Daily MailProvocative… 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.
—— Jude Cook , Literary ReviewMoshfegh’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.
—— Tom Fleming , The SpectatorEfforts 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.
—— Gill Moore , Totally DublinThere’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.
—— Victoria SadlerMoshfegh’s stories are sharp, dark and often horribly funny.
—— James Marriott , The Times