Human Croquet Part 18

EMOTIONALLY WEIRD.

Kate Atkinson.

'Funny, bold and memorable' The Times.

On a peat and heather island off the west coast of Scotland, Effie and her mother Nora take refuge in the large mouldering house of their ancestors and tell each other stories. Nora, at first, recounts nothing that Effie really wants to hear, like who her father was - variously Jimmy, Jack, or Ernie. Effie tells of her life at college in Dundee, the land of cakes and William Wallace, where she lives in a lethargic relations.h.i.+p with Bob, a student who never goes to lectures, seldom gets out of bed, and to whom the Klingons are as real as the French and the Germans (more real than the Luxemburgers). But strange things are happening. Why is Effie being followed? Is someone killing the old people? And where is the mysterious yellow dog?

'A truly comic novel - achingly funny in parts - challenging and executed with wit and mischief Meera Syal, The Express 'Sends jolts of pleasure off the page . . . Atkinson's funniest foray yet... it is a work of d.i.c.kensian or even Shakespearean plenty' Catherine Lockerbie, The Scotsman 9780552997348.

NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.

Kate Atkinson.

'Moving and funny, and crammed with incidental wisdom' Sunday Times.

What is the real world? Does it exist, or is it merely a means of keeping another reality at bay?

Not the End of the World is Kate Atkinson's first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks just beneath the surface of our consciousness, a world where the myths we have banished from our lives are startlingly present and where imagination has the power to transform reality.

From Charlene and Trudi, obsessively making lists while bombs explode softly in the streets outside, to gormless Eddie, maniacal cataloguer of fish, and Meredith Zane who may just have discovered the secret to eternal life, each of these stories shows that when the worlds of material existence and imagination collide, anything is possible.

'I can think of few writers who can make the ordinary collide with the extraordinary to such beguiling effect... left me so fizzing with admiration' Observer 'Exceptional . . . sharp, witty and completely compelling' Daily Mail.

'An exceptionally funny, quirky and bold writer' Independent on Sunday.

9780552771054.