Product Description

Everybody has their secrets, and in Sophie Hannah’s fantastic stories the curtains positively twitch with them. Who, for instance, is the hooded figure hiding in the bushes outside a young man’s house? Why does the same stranger keep appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs? What makes a woman stand mesmerised by two children in a school playground, children she’s never met but whose names she knows well? And which secret results in a former literary festival director sorting soiled laundry in a shabby hotel? All will be revealed...but at a cost. As Sophie Hannah uncovers the dark obsessions and strange longings behind the most ordinary relationships, life will never seem quite the same again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42487 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
'Hannah's comic gift for unraveling the relationship maze makes the complexities of domestic life interesting again.' The Independent 'The author brings a wealth of psychological and literary subtlety to bear... Smart and disarmingly unnerving.' Daily Mail 'Her observations about what lies beneath the surface of other people's lives are intelligently made and beautifully written.' Irish Independent 'People talk about "the Wow! Factor" and this book has got it... An excellent and indulgent read.' Times Books Group 'Hannah has a keen ear for her characters' foibles, snobberies and hypocrisies, and the observation remains acute throughout.' The Observer 'Superb... good, old-fashioned spine-tingling stuff, but also a fine modern thriller... One of those "I must find out what happened" books.' The Times 'A chilling thriller...I was left thinking about the book for days.' Matthew Lewin, The Guardian 'Beautifully written, the novel is outstandingly chilling.' The Spectator 'Hannah wrings a taut chiller-thriller out of the secrets and lies undermining an apparently perfect family.' Saga Magazine 'This taut psychological thriller is full of heart-thumping suspense' Sainsbury's Magazine 'A suspenseful psychological thriller; the plot twists and turns right up until the very last pages.' Heat magazine

From the Publisher
This brilliant collection of short stories has been voted one of the TOP TEN BOOKS TO TALK ABOUT for World Book Day.

About the Author
Born 1971, Sophie Hannah is that rare thing, an acclaimed and best selling poet who has also stormed the crime fiction charts. Her first psychological crime novel, Little Face (Hodder Headline, 2006) gained stellar reviews, was No 1 in Amazon Crime charts and has sold over 100,000 copies. Her second, Hurting Distance (Hodder Headline, 2007), looks set to achieve similar critical and commercial success. Sophie Hannah lives in Yorkshire with her husband and two young children.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful!
I loved this book! These stories by Sophie Hannah grab you from the first; snappy in plot, with twists and revelations, they manage to portray the dark sides of obsession and secrecy. Each is perfectly crafted. The very first story, `The Octopus Nest', was one of my favourites, throwing the reader immediately into the mystery of a strange woman in the family photographs. They are easy and thoroughly enjoyable to read, told through a wonderful writing style. Some of the stories are very funny - I found `We All Say What We Want' absolutely hilarious; it flawlessly brings to light everything you've ever wanted to say to your boss but didn't dare, whilst highlighting the undercurrents implicit in conversation and office relationships that are never truly vocalised. Others are really very dark. Hannah manages her characters brilliantly; they are both to be empathised with and held in revulsion as they hover between sanity and madness. The stories keep tapping into the internal desires of the reader as the boundaries of normal social behaviour are transgressed. By turns amusing, horrifying, chilling and thought-provoking, but never for a moment dull, the range of stories is wonderful. I am now making all of my friends read it, and I thoroughly recommend it to any who enjoy great short stories!

Utterly disappointing
The first story was really good and made me think this was going to be a great book. However every other story went nowhere and ended with a pointless anti-climax. I kept reading hoping each story was going to be as good as the first but after the 7th one I gave up and felt ripped off. Really put me off reading anything else by this author.

An interesting change from reading novels
This attractive book with an intriguing title and a quality folding type jacket is a pleasure to hold and is so well constructed - each story is just right to read at a time. Sophie Hannah's style is very much to my taste anyway so it was a hit with me. I loved the hidden references to contemporary culture (a meeting with Ian McEwan with a character demonstrating to him the illness he wrote the whole of 'Enduring Love' about, a reference to "The Others" cropping up on the first page) Layered and well observed stories of human nature, a wow of a read. Each story one felt could be expanded into a bigger one- such a wealth of ideas - I am a greedy reader and wanted to know more about the characters after their stories closed. Because some are so much better than others - The Octopus Nest remaining in the mind for ages - I couldn't quite give it 5 * s. However this would be a terrific gift for an avid reader.