Unsafe Attachments

Oct 5, 2024 9:14 AM

Author:Caroline Oulton

Unsafe Attachments

Unsafe Attachments explores the relationships of a loosely interlinked group of Londoners. Caught off guard at key points, they face moments of sudden temptation in their busy, established lives, as well as increasingly difficult choices.

Dinah, harried and pregnant, is haunted by images of death on her way to Heathrow. Abi, a senior civil servant, embarks upon an affair with a Nigerian journalist as her teenage daughter 'kind of shags' her teacher. Alex, increasingly keen to settle down, numbly accompanies his ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic. A glance at a party turns into a fumbling grope and then a guilty hangover for Roger, whose live-in girlfriend is smugly satisfied that her life is on course. Lonely café-owner Carey spots his married shrink passionately kissing another woman in a park while Tina's desperate wish for a child jeopardises everything that is important to her.

Relationships are acutely observed - the delights and tensions of living together, cheating on one another and trying to make lasting connections in this vast modern city. Love - real or imaginary - causes hearts to crack and lives to crumble but there is also hope, and sometimes there are second chances.

Reviews

Funny, infectious, exuberant, sharp, sad and beautifully observed

—— Sarah Dunant

A witty, observant and passionate collection of stories

—— Woman & Home

The stories loiter disturbingly in the memory, a terrific compendium of messy lives, betrayals, heartbreaks and tragedies

—— Independent on Sunday

Themes of infidelity and insecure lives of folk in the big city dominate Caroline Oulton's first collection of short stories ... A sad, funny, closely observed set of tales about the seemingly different lives of people living in a London neighbourhood.

—— Ham & High

The stories themselves are interwoven skilfully and each provides a satisfying probe into the characters' illicit lives, which engage you wholly, in the same guilty way as a gossip magazine. Oulton's prose is effective, nakedly frank and at intervals, truly delightful.

—— Time Out

Etgar Keret is a writer to be taken seriously

—— Yann Martel

Keret's surreal conceits are couched in a wry, downbeat language...The effect is something like a sorrowful hybrid of Kafka and Donald Barthelme: deadpan on the surface, with a bassnote of discomfort and emotional alienation that makes even the briefest tales snag in the mind...Each piece is at once universal and particular...world-class gems. The translation is brilliant, too

—— Tim Martin , Daily Telegraph

Etgar Keret is the voice of young Israel

—— Independent

One of the greatest short story writers alive

—— Ben Rice

One of the most important writers alive... enchantingly witty

—— Clive James

Etgar Keret's extraordinary imagination sets the reader free from slogans and headlines

—— Linda Grant

One of the greatest short story writers alive

—— Ben Rice

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