One of the best collections of short stories I've read in a while, all the better for being set in Belfast. The characters had strong, authentic, local voices, living real lives. There's an undercurrent of loneliness to some of these stories ('Inakeen' 'lady and dog'), sometimes regret, and the sense that lives had taken a turn from which people hadn't fully recovered, leaving them slightly broken, but that they were just getting on with things, best they could. There are glimpses of the troubles, and some of the characters had a quiet menace to them, like Kyle from the superior opener 'to all their dues', and there is a rich seam of black humour through - ‘Green pastilles’ made me laugh.

Best of the lot for me was 'Sweet home', it was just the creeping tension throughout, always felt like it wasn't going to end well. Though it's hard to choose as I found 'Last supper' funny and oddly moving and I liked the quiet assertiveness in 'Locksmiths.' The author writes about these people and their lives with a real honesty and the dialogue was just so sharp and rhythmical throughout. Having lived in Belfast I felt I could be eavesdropping on some of these conversations in a wee cafe somewhere in the east of the city. I can also recommend Wendy Erskine’s more recent collection ‘Dance move.’

221 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2018 by Picador

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