*Longlisted for The Story Prize*
“Mischief runs through this story collection, evident from the first line…Revelling in playful language and eschewing narrative convention, the stories feature encounters—with a lover, an art work, the natural world—that are endlessly teased out in protagonists’ hyperverbal minds…Williams delights not simply in wordplay but also in people who are alive to the poignant and humorous potential of language.”
—The New Yorker
“Exhilarating.”
—Vanity Fair
“Elegant…Vividly imagined.”
—The Guardian
“She is a writer for whom one struggles to find comparison, because she has arrived in a class of her own: witty, melancholy, occasionally sensual, occasionally mordant, elegantly droll without the kind of hipster quirkiness that makes me want to hurl books at the wall. She has in common with George Saunders the ability to be both playful and profound, and we are lucky to have her.”
—Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent
“It’s just the real inexplicable gorgeous brilliant thing this book. I love it in a way I usually reserve for people.”
—Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers
“A jewel box…A work of linguistic exuberance and lyrical meandering.”
—Kirkus
“Williams explores pathos and the dictionary with aplomb and a fresh voice. Anglophiles and linguistic schemers will savor this.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This whimsical, intricate collection of 16 short stories explores the beauty and limitations of language, the triumphs and failures of communication, with brilliant, irreverent prose.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Think William Gass, Lydia Davis or Anne Carson, and you won’t be too wrong.”
—London Review of Books
“An emotionally delicate and tenderly introspective collection.”
—New Statesman
“An absolute must-read for anyone remotely interested in the contemporary short story.”
—The London Magazine
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