From critically acclaimed Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine: a collection of profound and darkly funny stories about people trying to move on with their lives, while bound to the past.

'I could not put this book down and loved every page.' - Salena Godden

'Humane, funny, surprising, profound.' - Chris Power

'A masterpiece.' - David Keenan

Meet Drew Lord Haig, called upon to sing the obscure hit from his youth at a paramilitary event. Or Max, who recalls an eventful journey to a Christian film festival. Meet Mrs Dallesandro, in the tanning salon on her wedding anniversary dreaming of a teenage sexual experience. And Sonya, who scours the streets of Belfast for the missing posters of her dead son.

In Dance Move, the collection of stories from Wendy Erskine, we meet characters who are looking to wrest control of their lives, only to find themselves defined by the moment in their past that marked them.

In these stories – as in real life – the funny, the tender and the devastating go hand in hand. Full of warmth, the familiar and the strange, they are about what it means to live in the world, how far you can end up from where you came from, and what it means to look back.

Shortlisted for the irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year.
Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.

"Erskine is less interested in dispensing wisdom than in evoking the ambient pathos of ordinary lives. The understated yet distinctive sensibility first showcased in her 2018 debut collection, Sweet Home, is well honed in this impressive follow-up." - FT

"The stories are never sentimental, nor do they strain credulity. What grounds them is Erskine’s distinctive style: she is a great noticer, with an eye for microscopic detail, and pays close attention to the syntax and cadences of ordinary conversation. . . She is also extremely funny." - Spectator

"A spectacular feat in the short story form . . . Erskine’s Dance Move has such a beautiful deftness of touch that in writing the intricacies and intimacies between people in their most vulnerable moments, there is a tenderness felt by the reader which surpasses words.'" - Caught By The River

"Comic brilliance" - Guardian

"Daring, funny, heartbreaking . . . not to be missed" - Observer

"Dance Move is the most consummate book of short stories I know." - Irish Times

"Wendy Erskine’s debut, Sweet Home, was pitch perfect . . . Dance Move is equally brilliant; set in Belfast and brimful of well drawn, compelling characters, these spare, spacious stories pack an emotional punch" - Daily Mail

"Erskine’s pitch is close to perfect, and as a chronicler of the human condition, she has the most penetrating gaze." - iNews

"Exhilarating . . . a vivacious sweep of characters . . . the turn of events ingenious . . ." - Irish Times

"A remarkable revelation of the everyday extraordinary. Erskine has shown us how the banal can also be epic in its compassion and understated raw beauty. This is a book that carries with it a quiet joy, a reminder of the intensity of life, even at its most quotidian." - Totally Dublin

"Superb " - Hot Press

"Storytelling that is both compelling and original . . . Dance Move is the work of a writer of immense skill" - Sunday Independent

"A spectacular feat in the short story form . . . Dance Move has such a beautiful deftness of touch that . . . there is a tenderness felt by the reader which surpasses words." - Caught by the River