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.

'One of the greats' - Lucy Caldwell, author of Intimacies
'Comic brilliance' - Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations
'Ingenious' - The Irish Times
'Daring, funny, heartbreaking' - Observer

Following the prize-winning Sweet Home, Wendy Erskine's Belfast is once again illuminated. Meet Drew Lord Haig, called on to sing an obscure hit from his youth at a paramilitary event. Meet Max as he recalls an eventful journey to a Christian film festival. And Mrs Dallesandro who dreams of being a teenager again as she sits in a tanning salon on her wedding anniversary. In these stories, Erskine's characters' wishes and hopes often fall short of their grasp. Brilliantly drawn, Dance Move is about the hugeness of life as seen through glimpses of the everyday.

'A masterpiece' - David Keenan, author of Monument Maker

'Wendy Erskine's debut, Sweet Home, was pitch perfect . . . Dance Move is equally brilliant' - The Daily Mail

'Erskine's stories open slight, but they contain more than it seems possible for short stories to contain' - Keith Ridgway, author of Hawthorn & Child

'She isn’t just one of the leading writers of short fiction at work today but one of the leading writers, period.' - Matt Rowland Hill, author of Original Sins

As Read on BBC Radio 4
Shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize
Shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year
The Irish Times Books of the Year 2022

"Comic brilliance" - Guardian

"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

"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 propulsive and unmissable collection of tales full of piercing details and observations." - nb. Magazine