Nobody Will Ever Love You

Short stories are like miniature films, and this prize-winning collection by A M Howcroft delivers a potent screening of art-house tales and Hollywood blockbusters. They are studded with a memorable cast of characters, such as a chicken-factory worker balanced high on a slippery roof, a woman carving saints out of driftwood, teenage boy-racers who’ve solved life’s mysteries, through to a business woman who dies nine times. Each story is set within a rich-cinematic backdrop to reveal people at critical turning points, with delicately balanced risks and rewards. Whether starting riots in Paris, breaking into a friend’s house in California, or killing time before being busted by customs officers, the narrators are flawed, unpredictable, smart and stupid in equal measure. Funny, moving and often provoking, these compelling stories will entertain; giving you images that linger and dialogue you’ll want to repeat in fake accents.