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Title:

Normal rules don't apply : stories

Added Title:

Void.

Dogs in jeopardy.

Blithe spirit.

Spellbound.

Indiscreet charm of the bourgeoisie.

Shine, Pamela! Shine.

Existential marginalization.

Classic quest 17 crime and punishment.

Puppies and rainbows.

Gene-sis.

What if?

Author:

Atkinson, Kate, author.

Summary:

In this brilliant volume, nothing is quite as it seems. We meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a lost man who bets on a horse that may—or may not—have spoken to him. Everything that readers love about the novels of Kate Atkinson is here—the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations of human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop. -- Amazon.

Edition:

First large print edition.

Contents:

The void -- Dogs in jeopardy -- Blithe spirit -- Spellbound -- The indiscreet charm of the bourgeoisie -- Shine, Pamela! Shine! -- Existential marginalization -- Classic Quest 17: Crime and punishment -- Puppies and rainbows -- Gene-sis -- What if? -- Credits.

Physical Description:

249 pages ; 24 cm

Genre:

Short stories.

Humorous fiction.

Magic realist fiction.

Large type books.

Subject Term:

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Random House Large Print,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9780593793220

Publication Information:

New York : Random House Large Print, 2023.

Call Number:

LP ATKINSON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003674986	New Large Print Fiction	ATKINSON Kate	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A dazzling collection of eleven interconnected stories from the bestselling, award-winning author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life , with everything that readers love about her novels--the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.

Nothing is quite as it seems in this collection of eleven dazzling stories. We meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a man who bets on a horse that may--or may not--have spoken to him. Everything that readers love about the novels of Kate Atkinson is here--the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations on human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.

A startling and funny feast for the imagination, these stories conjure a multiverse of subtly connected worlds while illuminating the webs of chance and connection among us all.

Author Notes

Kate Atkinson was born in York, and studied English Literature at the University of Dundee. She earned her Masters Degree from Dundee in 1974. She then went on to study for a doctorate in American Literature but she failed at the viva (oral examination) stage. After leaving the university, she took on a variety of jobs from home help to legal secretary and teacher. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year ahead of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh and Roy Jenkins's biography of William Ewart Gladstone. It went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller.

Since then, she has published another five novels, one play, and one collection of short stories. Her work is often celebrated for its wit, wisdom and subtle characterisation, and the surprising twists and plot turns. Her most recent work has featured the popular former detective Jackson Brodie. In 2009, she donated the short story Lucky We Live Now to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Atkinson's story was published in the 'Earth' collection. In March 2010, Atkinson appeared at the York Literature Festival, giving a world-premier reading from an early chapter from her forthcoming novel Started Early, Took My Dog, which is set mainly in the English city of Leeds.

Atkinson's bestselling novel, Life after Life, has won numerous awards, including the COSTA Novel Award for 2013. The follow-up to Life After Life is A God in Ruins and was published in 2015. This title won a Costa Book Award 2015 in the novel category.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This stunning collection from Atkinson (Shrines of Gaiety) is a master class in literary worldbuilding. These 11 interconnected stories happen in a world one step removed from this one, where human existence is regulated by the Void, a daily, five-minute apocalyptic event causing mass death. Here, characters proper to fairy tales, myths, and scripture rub shoulders with inhabitants of northern England in scenes from otherwise prosaic lives: recurring character Franklin, for example, who, over the course of the collection, meets a talking horse and a chatty dog, and finally drives off with Aoife, the bewitched child of a queen. In "Gene-Sis," humankind is subject to the decisions of Kitty, an advertising executive and Sister of God, who must remake the world from scratch while simultaneously writing a campaign for a new, healthy smoothie. "Blithe Spirit" follows Mandy, a downtrodden secretary to a disreputable politician, who observes the investigation into her own murder from the ghostly beyond. Atkinson delights in metafictional possibilities: young Franklin's idea for a novel--"A text based on non-linear dynamics, a Borgesian exploration of parallel worlds"--though ridiculed by other characters, mimics the collection's structure. If the concept sounds promisingly fun, the whimsical but sharp prose is built to match, full of speculative glee, but tinged with poignancy. Agent: Kim Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (Sept).