BOOKSELLER INFORMATION

Publication Date: 01-Oct-07 | ISBN: 9781844713943 | Trim Size: 203 x 127 mm | Extent: 112pp | Format: Paperback

UK Distribution:   | USA Distribution:   | Publishing Status: Active

SYNOPSIS

These are stories about power: children without it and adults vying to get or keep it. A small boy struggles with his parents’ divorce, a doctor fails to understand the limits of his medical power, a wronged wife finds a uniquely powerful way to wreak revenge. Sometimes satirical, sometimes innovative and lyrical, the stories home in on those moments when power can spill into powerlessness: the split-second when a self-satisfied teenager is held at knifepoint by muggers, the trip to the woods with the ‘poor kids’ which teaches a small girl she’s no better than them. They chart the opposite moments when people wrest back power: a daughter rebels against her violent father, a struggling writer decides to expose a con man arts worker, a little girl who wishes her lost father would come back finds she has magic powers.

But it’s a slippery thing, power, and these vivid, wry stories spring surprises: for nothing, in the end, is ever quite what it seems.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Condensed Metaphysics; The Shooting Script; Daniel Smith Disappears off the Face of the Earth; Power; Holding Hands; Compass and Torch; Star Things; Leaf Memory; A Glossary of Bread; Going Back; Into the Night; Conundrum; The Way to Behave; Who’s Singing?; Acknowledgements

PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK

“A terrific collection – luminous, witty and wise.” —Livi Michael

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS

“For ‘Star Things’:
Almost ethereal in its strangeness and has great energy at its heart.” —Brendan O’Keefe Literary Review

“For ‘Star Things’:
Integral, readable and stylish.” —City Limits

“Elizabeth Baines has a wry humour and satirical edge.” —Martin Nicholls City Life

“For Body Cuts:
Strikingly told.” —Sunday Times

“About The Birth Machine:

An increasingly powerful narrative … its presentation of the world of childhood contrasts nicely with a sharp satire.” —Laura Marcus Times Literary Supplement

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Elizabeth Baines was born in South Wales and lives in Manchester. She has been a teacher and is an occasional actor as well as the prize-winning author of plays for radio and stage, and of two novels, The Birth Machine and Body Cuts. Her award-winning short stories have been published widely in magazines and anthologies. Her first story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World, was published by Salt in 2007. A novel, Too Many Magpies, will come from Salt in November 2009.