All the Rage

Description

A dozen stories- a dozen ways of looking at love, or the lack of love. Over five previous collections, A. L. Kennedy has shown herself to be a master of the short form, with a perfect way with sentences and a voice so distinct as to be instantly recognisable. The dazzling new collection from the Costa Prize-winning author of Day and The Blue Book. She doesn't ever lie to him unless it's for the best. A husband and wife wait for a train as their relationship unspools silently around them. A woman contemplates the idea of her lover dying as she queues in a bank. An almost impossibly uncomfortably lunch culminates in a passionate kiss. In this dazzling collection of stories lies the battlefield of the heart, where characters who have suffered somehow emerge - haltingly, awkwardly - into the astonishment of intimacy.

A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards - including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

One of the most consistently dazzling writers of her generation... Kennedy's stories are a little like love: no matter how many times they break your heart, you still come back for more. This collection proves, once again, that it is always worth it. -- Katy Guest * Independent on Sunday * Kennedy is brilliantly, painfully funny about the fault-lines and disaster zones of the typical relationship * The Times * This book celebrates love like a hungry dog celebrates the corpse of a rabbit... Kennedy is, if you like, the Anti-Cartland... Magnificently bleak. -- Jojo Moyes * Independent * It is Kennedy's portrayal of the difficulty, if not seeming impossibility, of connecting with other people that makes these stories so moving... Kennedy's disjointed, angular style and weird, displaced atmospherics really work -- Lionel Shriver * Financial Times * A.L. Kennedy's masterful new collection... Stories appear to roam chaotically, like the mind, but of course they are neat, perfect messes. -- Vicky Allan * Herald * The book is filled with lyrical beauty, wry humour and acute observation, imbued by a willingness to dig deep and give voice to the reader's rawest emotions. All the Rage is an outstanding collection, full of stories to be savoured. -- Ally Nichol * List * [Kennedy] is the god of her own godless world. Her prose moves in more mysterious ways than mere comprehension will allow. -- Tom Adair * Scotland on Sunday * A satisfying diversity of experience and insight. -- James Purdon * Literary Review * Full of moments of risk, which Kennedy's characters handle self-consciously and with care... She strings lyrical sentences together effortlessly. -- Sheena Joughin * Times Literary Supplement * Beautifully crafted... It would be impossible not to admire these stories. -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *