Description
Book SynopsisA debut collection of stories by a poet with a “painter’s eye for detail and pianist’s touch for sounding the right notes” (Simon Armitage).
Trade Review"Never once reads like the work of a newcomer to fiction. . . . O'Riordan's noticing eye is sharply attuned to the grit and grime of Los Angeles and its inhabitants." -- Bookforum
"[O'Riordan's] poetic talent for simile and image is certainly transferred intact to prose." -- Los Angeles Review of Books
"Lovers are lost and mourned in these sharp and sometimes violent stories, and characters suffer through turbulence both literal and metaphorical, haunted by questions they never asked. O'Riordan is particularly skilled at finding the perfect image or detail to bring these worlds to life." -- Publishers Weekly
"These are subtle fictions, a work in which mannerisms and casual gestures count for a lot. . . . [A] work that feels fully lived in." -- Kirkus
"A quietly excellent collection of short stories. . . . You are never in doubt that you are reading the work of an elegant and greatly accomplished writer." -- Guardian
"O'Riordan willfully mines the less glossy side of LA . . . with haunting effect." -- GQ
"Wonderfully lyrical and bittersweet." -- Observer
"An impressive range of stories that run from reflective to highly dramatic, and O’Riordan’s verbal polish as a poet shines." -- Irish Times
"This is a wonderful, beguiling collection of short stories. Written with a cool, knowing lyricism, they haunt and enthrall." -- William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart and Restless
"Adam O’Riordan’s stories have an uncanny ability to draw us into the lives of characters who are at once self-possessed and vulnerable. It means that we read about them in a state of excited anxiety—impressed by their worldly competence, but sensing that failure and even tragedy are never far away. The effect is compelling, and all the more so for being achieved through a range of forms and voices which make the collection as ambitious in its reach as it is concentrated in its vision of human behavior." -- Andrew Motion, former poet laureate of the United Kingdom
