Something Like Happy

John Burnside

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Paperback

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English

Vintage
15 April 2014

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945); Short stories

A collection of masterpieces in short fiction in praise of hope, from prize-winning author John Burnside.

In these remarkable stories, John Burnside takes us into the lives of men and women trapped in marriage, ensnared by drink, diminished by disappointment.

These are people for whom the idea of 'home' has become increasingly intangible, hard to believe - and happiness, or grace, or freedom, all now seem to belong in some kind of dream, or a fable they might have read in a children's picture book. As he says in one story, 'All a man has is his work and his sense of himself, all the secret life he holds inside that nobody else can know.' But in each of these normal, damaged lives, we are shown something extraordinary- a dogged belief in some kind of hope or beauty that flies in the face of all reason and is, as a result, both transfiguring and heart-rending.

'There is no telling what kind of gifts one of John Burnside's wonderful sentences will contain.' Anne Enright

By: John Burnside
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 181g
ISBN: 9780099575597
ISBN 10: 0099575590
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 15 April 2014
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

John Burnside was among the most acclaimed writers of his generation. His novels, short stories, poetry and memoirs won numerous awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Memorial, Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and, in 2023, he received the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in literature. In 2011 Black Cat Bone won both the Forward and the T.S. Eliot Prizes for poetry. He died in 2024.

Reviews for Something Like Happy

Each story has a splash of intense colour at the heart... These are Scottish versions of the stories of Raymond Carver... Burnside writes tough, home-grown prose that inhabits the story form with perfect fit. -- Brian Morton * Independent * A haunting and beautiful collection that deserves to be read slowly and savoured but which you won't be able to put down. -- Caroline Jowett * Daily Express * Masterly... A spiritual, haunting book. -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times * Burnside's prose glitters. -- Leyla Sanai * Independent on Sunday * Burnside brings a poet's linguistic precision and emotional acuity... The writer's deep, bloody engagement with the stuff of life can't fail to leave the reader enlivened, and keen to feel more. -- Hannah McGill * Scotland on Sunday *