She swims into the medals and then into oblivion – a sensuous, searing, compact debut from an outstanding British writer.This is a striking, supple and direct debut from an English writer that both promises an exceptionally exciting future and provides an unusual, accomplished and saleable debut. It’s a character piece, charting the life of a girl who becomes besotted with butterflies and swimming on the same holiday when an infant, then grows up to become a world-class swimmer before, at 19,...
A cracking collection of short stories from the author of the stupendous ‘Swimmer’.In the title story of this sharp, clever collection of short stories, an odd-job man arrives home to his Bradford council block to find a message waiting for one of its inhabitants…in ten-foot-high letters. With his white van and set of ladders, he’s the chief suspect. But who is the mysterious Slag that has the whole street gossiping; and who has she hurt?In ‘Wrestling Jacob’, a lusty academic takes out his...