I’m a big fan of Kate Atkinson and was pleased to see a new collection of short stories being published this year.
I always feel that Kate Atkinson, is an intelligent writer.and is a fantastic storyteller and these short stories live up to this. The one thing I hadn’t noticed so much in previous novels was wit. and these short stories really do show this. The stories are witty and intelligent and I particularly enjoyed the links between stories. Characters appear and reappear as do places , characters that have a walk on part in one story are the main narrator in another story. We meet talking horses and talking dogs seemingly at random, and within quite naturalistic stories. At one stage, it seems that one of the characters might perhaps be God and writing all the other characters as she develops the universe.
I’m not actually much of a fan of the short story format, but the way that these stories are linked, gives the book more of a feel of a novel than an unconnected series of stories would. I enjoyed the game of spotting link was between the stories
I particularly enjoyed the apocalyptic story where the world pauses and anyone found outside dies. The story could’ve been quite dark, but the but with the addition of the authors wit, the story is very memorable.
If you are a fan of Kate Atkinson, you will no doubt buy this book, and I’m sure will not be disappointed with it. there is a similarity in the writing here with that of her previous novel Life after life, those who are new to the author will also enjoy this book. if you like into an intelligent witty, read, with a careful sprinkling of magical reality this will be the book for you.

Many thanks to Alison Barrow for sending me a copy of this novel to read and review. The novel is published in the UK on 24th of August 2023 by Doubleday books