Tender, precise, comic & chilling by turn, the stories in A L Kennedy's new collection confirm her reputation as one of the most exciting new writers to have appeared in the past decade. Exposing & exploring the sinuous undercurrents of violence, anguish & love, she examines the nature of the individual, both in isolation & society, as characters define & deny their chosen identities. While showing us the unlikeliness of intimacy & the impossibility of communication, Kennedy also reveals the subversive liberation of impotence, the humour of discomfort as human beings chafe together, the crazed claustrophobia of the family & the wildly funny results of an eccentricity unleashed.