Sometimes - not often - a book comes along that feels like Christmas. A Santa's sack of goodies to be unwrapped, revealing ever more lovely treats. Philip Hensher's timely, but timeless, selection of the best short stories from the past 20 years is that kind of book. In fact, his introduction is as enriching as anything that has been published this year.

Like its predecessors, this volume is a feast, and every morsel worth savouring

A cerebral extravaganza, bristling with ideas

The fairy story is obviously a form that fascinates A.S. Byatt, it suits her spare, cool prose and this collection enables her to create very different effects... a beautifully produced book

Exquisite triptych... The Matisse Stories is richly drawn and touches upon things that matter to people

Books by Cathy Bramley are brilliantly life affirming

Full of joy and fun

Cathy Bramley serves up the perfect concoction of charm and escapism

Dunmore’s skill as an observer and chronicler of human behaviour shines throughout this final collection of her fiction

A mix of historical and contemporary, they’re outstanding and showcase her amazing talent

Dunmore’s writing ranges over a multitude of subjects, from teenagers to centenarians , and all ages in between. With sensitivity and compassion she wrote about passion, family, friendship, happiness, loneliness and grief. She brought an elegant economy of words to her stories, communication her meaning with clarity and finesse. Her family and friend have created a superb memorial to her unique talent and an excellent primer for anyone who has not explored her work before.

Sharply observed

There was no story that didn’t hold my attention from its first sentences.

The best of them showcase Dunmore’s knack for shining a light into the hidden corners of women’s experience

We too imagine ourselves in the room with her characters, imagine they are talking, like friends, to us

Lyrical and full of human situations acutely observed.

[A] remarkable collection of short stories exploring fragile ties between passion, love, family.

This collection is the finest swan song of a writer full of sensitivity, talent and an immense grasp of the complexity of human nature.

A reminder of what a tender and perceptive writer she was.

They are stories full of humanity and compassion which witness her interest in women under stress or duress, in the horrors of war, in motherhood and in moments of joy at unexpected times. I’m very happy to have had a chance to read them.

Nafissa Thompson-Spires has taken the best of what Toni Cade Bambara, Paul Beatty, Morgan Parker...do plus a whole lot of something we've never seen in American literature, blended it all together and given us one of the finest short story collections I've ever read. The super thin lines between terror, intimacy, humor and hubris are masterfully toed, jumped and ultimately redrawn in the most exciting and soulful fiction I've read this century. The nation needed Heads of Colored People 40 years ago. Thankfully, we Nafissa Thompson-Spires gave it to us now.

By turns hilarious, charming, ingenious, and heartbreaking, Thompson-Spires’ debut is well worth checking out

What a true pleasure it is to spend time with this alive mind thinking so openly and interestingly on the page about character and culture and storytelling and one’s everchanging role in it all. This book made me laugh many times, and I also sometimes stopped midpage to read a paragraph aloud just to relish how Thompson-Spires was moving her story along. A marvel of a debut

Darkly humorous and incredibly moving, "Heads of the Colored People" is a wonderful collection of short stories ... The book couldn't be more timely — and even the stories that seem light-hearted on the surface are, at their center, incredibly intelligent reflections on race, identity, and blackness. Nafissa Thompson-Spires has written a masterpiece.

This is one of the best short story debuts I’ve read in my whole life. It’s that simple. Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the real deal. Straight up, no hyperbole. Read a couple pages and recognize

Clever, cruel, hilarious, heartbreaking, and at times simply ingenious

A dazzling mix of dark, funny and wicked stories about black identity in the so-called post-racial era. Reminiscent of the catchy intelligence of Paul Beatty...this debut audaciously tackles race and identity politics

Stuffed with invention… Thompson-Spires proves herself a trenchant humorist with an eye for social nuance

Nafissa Thompson-Spires’ stories fearlessly tackle broad issues of race, identity politics, and the body, while never losing sight of the intricately-faceted individuals inhabiting those bodies. She writes with a precision of psychological insight that is both moving and profound. Dignified, controlled, and, above all, original: Thompson-Spires is an important new voice in contemporary fiction

[A] dazzling collection... Transgressive and wildly funny, Heads of the Colored People announces a major new talent

Tremendous... One of the best books of the year... a breakthrough in literary fiction

With devastating insight and remarkable style, Nafissa Thompson-Spires explores what it means to come to terms with one’s body, one’s family, one’s future. The eleven vignettes in Heads of the Colored People elevate the unusual and expose the unseen, forming an original—and urgent—portrait of American life

This short story collection is filled with characters that will your win your heart in a matter of words. This book is a must-read

Nafissa Thompson-Spires has a way of staring intense, awkward, comic, and sorrowful situations right in the face. There's no escaping her honest gaze. Heads of the Colored People is a necessary and powerful new collection with, thankfully, not a dull sentence to be found

From petty classroom moms to a young girl who is contemplating taking her own life, these stories are deep and touching. We promise you’ll fall in love with this book, just like we did

This collection resonates on many frequencies. There are direct links between characters in several of the stories, many of whom are foils for each other, and their nuances are sure to strike a chord with any reader who’s struggled with insecurity and a search for self… Thompson-Spires writes with grace, a lightly bitter humor, and a real eye for a detail that calls attention to the simultaneous reality and fictionality of each story… A profound and truly enjoyable collection

Bubbly and sardonic, full of sly twists and dramatic reveals

A bold new voice, at once insolently sardonic ... Thompson-Spires flashes fearsome gifts for quirky characterisation, irony-laden repartee and edgy humour

[An] impressive debut collection… [Nafissa Thompson-Spires’] electric style is extrovert, erudite and hugely entertaining… [an] unmistakable talent

A fresh take on what it means to be black in today’s America

Furiously contemporary, Heads of the Colored People feels like a bulletin from the world delivered in the last couple of seconds

Superb… This is a firecracker of a book, sizzling with politics, but it’s also a triumph of storytelling: intelligent, acerbic and ingenious

Characters’ observations are delivered with clarity and precision; their responses to tragic situations are often filled with humour… [Heads of the Colored People] explore the internal and external tensions of moving through life in a body of colour