All the Rage

Shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story AwardHere, as before, lies the battlefield of the heart, where characters who have suffered disaffection, alienation or emotional damage somehow emerge - haltingly, awkwardly - into the astonishment of intimacy. And here, too, are the ones who will not shake off the hurt and the loss, who will not come through.The extraordinary title story takes place on a railway platform, with a couple waiting for a train that never comes, and opens out into the husband's shocking admission of years of deceit, and a devastating portrait of a failed marriage, a failed man. Another story shows a woman who is, in every sense, lost and who finds herself - to her bewilderment and alarm - walking the aisles of a sex emporium holding an electric penis. There is great compassion here, and deep, dark humour, but also a stronger sense than ever before that the emotional paralysis can be loosened - that an impossibly uncomfortable lunch, say, between two apparent strangers, can culminate in a passionate kiss. 'You do not know this man. He is practically a stranger. Only he's not.'

The dazzling new collection from the Costa Prize-winning author of Day and The Blue Book.

She doesn't ever lie to him unless it's for the best.

A husband and wife wait for a train as their relationship unspools silently around them. A woman contemplates the idea of her lover dying as she queues in a bank. An almost impossibly uncomfortably lunch culminates in a passionate kiss. In this dazzling collection of stories lies the battlefield of the heart, where characters who have suffered somehow emerge - haltingly, awkwardly - into the astonishment of intimacy.

Vorwort
A dozen stories: a dozen ways of looking at love, or the lack of love. Over five previous collections, A. L. Kennedy has shown herself to be a master of the short form, with a perfect way with sentences and a voice so distinct as to be instantly recognisable.

Autorentext

A. L. Kennedy

Zusammenfassung
The dazzling new collection from the Costa Prize-winning author of Day and The Blue Book.She doesn t ever lie to him unless it s for the best.A husband and wife wait for a train as their relationship unspools silently around them. A woman contemplates the idea of her lover dying as she queues in a bank. An almost impossibly uncomfortably lunch culminates in a passionate kiss. In this dazzling collection of stories lies the battlefield of the heart, where characters who have suffered somehow emerge haltingly, awkwardly into the astonishment of intimacy.