Fantastic Book Of Everybody'S Secrets, The

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. Review: Stories related with a relish rarely matched. . . Hannah's debut collection will leave you feeling genuinely tickled and wanting more. * Independent * Prizes: Short-listed for World Book Day: Spread the Word Book to Talk About 2009. Author Biography: Sophie Hannah is that rare thing: an acclaimed and best-selling poet. Her first book was greeted with amazement. The Poetry Review declared, 'Shall I put it in capitals? SOPHIE HANNAH IS A GENIUS.' Each subsequent collection has been informally more inventive, thematically more complex, yet each has met with a similar welcome. Her latest book, 'First of the Last Chances', was published in 2003.