You Are Not A Stranger Here?

Each of these stunning short stories is concerned with varying degrees of despair and yet, after finishing them - and it is impossible not to read them all at one sitting - the reader is uplifted, so affecting is the message of love for humanity. Haslett writes with complete assurance, assuming with equal skill the voices of teenage boys, deranged elders and defeated women. As soon as a character speaks, the reader is lured in to listen to his story - and what stories. There is the lonely, bereaved child who listens patiently to his school counsellor and then finds his own frightful way to obliterate grief, the manic old gentleman who sounds utterly convincing until we are knocked off balance by his giddy teetering on the edge and the brother and sister protecting each other from the truth that will hurt and harm. It is rare to find a writer who dares to empathize with such characters' emotions and so render their extraordinary actions not only understandable but logical. The stories unfold naturally and without dramatic crises but this understatement serves only to intensify each predicament. One of his characters, a quiet psychiatrist, realizes that he will always be listening for the unspoken words that signal suffering. Adam Haslett has found a way to make what he calls 'the unsaid pain' visible but his stories are not unrelentingly miserable. Laughter is always there in the incongruity of a situation or a person's absurd thoughts but the reader is never invited to mock, only to smile. The tone rarely falters although the settings range from South London to New England and California. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and winner of the Michener Fellowship, Haslett has made an exceptional debut. (Kirkus UK)