Tender, precise, comic and 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 and exploring the sinuous undercurrents of violence, anguish and love, she examines the nature of the individual, both in isolation and society, as characters define and deny their chosen identities. While showing us the unlikeliness of intimacy and 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 and the wildly funny results of an eccentricity unleashed.