Author:Truman Capote
'Breathtaking ... The stories are special. They stand in their own right as lovely vignettes of the lives of the lonely, broken and troubled' Andrew Johnson, Independent
Written when Truman Capote was in his teens and twenties, these recently-discovered short stories give a rare insight into an American icon. Tales of disappointed lovers, ageing spinsters, hoboes and murderous housewives, of yearning, poverty, despair, compassion, wit and wonder, they show us the boy from Alabama who became one of the twentieth century's most celebrated literary voices.
'An intriguing glimpse of Capote as a boy: precocious, provocative, spirited and strange, a "pocket Merlin" spinning tall tales' Olivia Laing, New Statesman
One of the funniest writers in the English language... Saki was incapable of writing a dull sentence, but the final lines of his short stories are works of art in themselves
—— Daily TelegraphRead Saki, shiver, then smile. In his mixture of the exotic with the wholly English, of brazen charm with unapologetic spite, he stands alone
—— IndependentSaki writes like an enemy. Society has bored him to the point of murder. Our laughter is only a note or two short of a scream of fear
—— V. S. PritchettSaki's stories are highly relevant to any society in which convention is confused with morality, and all societies confuse convention with morality, so he'll always be relevant
—— Will SelfSaki remains, from a distance of a hundred years, just about the sharpest, cruellest, funniest and most elegant short story writer in our language... Saki is like a perfect martini but with absinthe stirred in...heady, delicious and dangerous. Enjoy
—— Stephen FryThese stories are cut-glass beauties, pitiless and hard-edged and constantly poking fun at the pretensions of the middle and upper classes... Crisp, funny and perfectly targeted
—— Naomi Alderman , GuardianHis stories...bear the hallmarks of Oscar Wilde and Henry James, are as funny as Wilde, Wodehouse and Waugh, possess plotting exquisite enough to bear significant elaboration but rarely last longer than three pages, and are brought off with a wonderfully light touch, while presenting a disturbingly chilling portrait of humankind
—— GuardianMy favourite writer of all time is the satirical Edwardian writer HH Munro, who was also known as Saki. He had a very black sense of humour and some of his short stories are so incredibly dark and irreverent that you just can’t help but laugh
—— Clarissa Dickson Wright , Daily ExpressHis tales are loaded with death and destruction, as well as a heavy dose of flippancy and cynicism. They are peppered with clever, cutting epigrams and usually end with a grim twist. And there are animals - lots of them
—— GuardianSaki is among those few writers, inspirational when read at an early age, who definitely retain their magic when revisited decades later
—— Christopher HitchensThese delicious, hilarious and yet surgical satires are amongst the finest short stories in the English language
—— Alexei SayleLike her peers David Nicholls and Marian Keyes, possesses the enviable gift of making the reader laugh in the gloomiest of circumstances
—— Independent on SundayMasterful. Transforms the every day into something rich.
—— Time Out on Consequences