SHORTLISTED FOR SALTIRE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR, 2017
LONGLISTED FOR THE EDGE HILL PRIZE, 2018
A local tries to sell his sister to a trucker as he passes through town; a couple put their children to bed and hear a loud scratching at the wall; a man looks into a mirror and reflects on becoming more like his father.
Sparky, touching and brilliantly daring, these stories uncover human feeling in the ordinary and the everyday, and are a reminder of Kelman's exceptional talent.
"Kelman is on another level to most of the living writers in the UK" - * Guardian *
"Kelman has always been a true and honest writer; which is why he is one of the fairly few who really matter" - * Scotsman *
"Brilliant . . . this collection shows a writer who is still at the top of his game, brimming with creativity, vitality and artistic integrity" - * Irish Independent *
"Like the best short story writers - James Joyce, Kafka, John Cheever, Alice Munro - he has reinvented the form" - * The Herald *
"
PRAISE FOR THE STORIES OF JAMES KELMAN:
Tender and funny in a way that may surprise those who know him only by reputation
" - * Daily Telegraph *
"A rollicking, riveting read . . . Kelman's language of inner thought is so fluid and immediate it reads more like breath than words" - * Daily Herald *
"The mixture of the precisely but surreally bureaucratic and the casually macabre is perfectly judged" - * Sunday Times *
"You only have to read one phrase to recognise his utterly distinctive voice: lyrical, philosophical as a pub stool resident and steeped in the street . . . The result, for those who take words seriously, is canonical and pure joy" - * Metro *
"Kelman's language is immediately exciting; like a musician, he uses repetition and rhythm" - * New Yorker *
