And something... !

So: the loudest picture, well at least a bold combination of yellow, orange, and brown with large type across the front. Then nothing. More of what was going on in that blog-shaped void later, but now the reason for putting up a picture of the book cover. Though I suppose it's pretty obvious: run out to a bookshop or click a few pages away from here and buy this book. A collection of beautifully crafted short stories, this book moves from nineteenth-century France to a a remote Scottish island, from the teenage girl testing her power over men, to the man who's lost his family. Sounds and smells escape from the pages; every sense and sight is captured on paper. And the voices of the characters who live and breathe in the book speak strongly, living out their daily lives. But each of those lives and the encounters that occur within them circle round dark centres: something missing, an unfulfilled desire, an unwelcome memory, an unchangeable situation, helplessness against the encroaching world. And all conjured with an economy of language and mastery of length, form, style and character that make this a darkly beautiful collection.