BOOKSELLER INFORMATION
Publication Date: 01-Nov-10 | ISBN: 9781844718047 | Trim Size: 198 x 129 mm | Extent: 176pp | Format: Paperback
UK & International Distribution: 
| Publishing Status: Active
SYNOPSIS
Shortlisted for the 2011 Edge Hill Prize
The characters in this award-winning debut collection are very good at losing things: children, lovers, hope, the plot. They discover the past is not a place easily escaped from, as it pursues them with startling, sometimes horrifying, consequences.
A writer takes his research a little too far; a couple, stricken with guilt and grief, prepare a last meal; a group of swingers is rocked by the arrival of a new couple; a man takes a train journey to learn how to kill again; a deformed brother and sister exact revenge half a mile underground; a modern-day messiah astonishes a criminal gang, and a father is forever tormented by the few minutes his back was turned.
It’s impossible not to connect with these lives and the things that happen to them remaining with you long after reading. Provocative and bold, these stories will get under your skin.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Method; Seeing Anyone?; Delivering the Newbies ; The Last Supper ; Busy. Come. Wait. ; They May Not Mean to but They Do; Old Enough ; There Are New Birthdays Now; Staring at the Sun ; The Little Man ; Meet Martin ; Homecoming ; Hare’s Running; Breathe; Offline; One Story; Reload; Team Build; New Model; Extracts of Love; The Arrival;
PRAISE FOR THIS BOOK
“These stories are sensational. Beautifully written, impeccably timed. Vowler’s characters live with heightened sensitivity, as if in the wake of some disaster. ” —Luke Kennard, author of The Migraine Hotel and The Solex Brothers
“Gothic wit and cracking dialogue grounded in the author's
genuine sympathy for his characters. A seriously gifted debut.” —Mike McCormack, author of Notes From a Coma
“Emotionally powerful.” —Susie Macguire, author of The Short Hello and Furthermore
“Vowler's characters hurtle merrily towards self-annihilation so that we don't have to. The kind of book you read in tongue-sticking-out tension, your patience rewarded as he takes turn after salacious turn.” —Wena Poon, author of Alex y Robert and Lions In Winter
“Vowler is not afraid to be new, to be dangerous with it and flaunt his talent. Composed beautifully and saturated with insight and compassion.” —The Short Review
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS
“I admired the sheer style of the writing, as well as the wryness and authority of the narrative voice. I kept reading out of admiration for the prose (particularly the dialogue).” —Will Atkins MacMillan New Writing
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Tom lives in south-west England, on the edge of a moor, where he moved to finish a novel set there. His blog about the experience received 9,000 hits in its first year. In 2007 he completed an MA in creative writing, and since then his short stories have appeared widely. A chapter from his first novel came in the top ten of the Richard & Judy ‘How to Get Published’ competition, which received 46,000 entries. Tom is the assistant editor of the literary journal Short Fiction.
