"Story after story gave me the uneasy feeling that I'd been outed, my secret anxiety and exhaustion laid bare. The emotional computations of the characters are constant, a steady drone that directs them to accommodate everyone, as much as possible, all the time."

• Allison Moore, from the Introduction

Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down is the quietly opened vein that every literate woman is hiding with a strategically positioned clutch or behind sleeves not quite right for the weather. These are not your everyday stories of resilience - while the heart may be laid bare, the women here don't have time to hit the fainting couch with their trauma.

No. The women here are too sharp for that. And too busy. They're busy carrying worlds on their shoulders; they're busy with sex (and equally busy when the sex is great and when it's not); they're busy being messy and complicated and generally busy with the business of existence, with making sure you don't see that vein.

As for author Anna Dickson James? She's busy exploring the many delicate and thoroughly original ways to let you see it anyway.