Bad Dreams And Other Stories

Description: **LONGLISTED FOR THE 2018 EDGE HILL SHORT STORY PRIZE** Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a new baby. A housekeeper caring for a helpless old man uncovers secrets from his past. A young girl accepts a lift in a car with a group of strangers. An old friend brings bad news to a dinner party. In these gripping and unsettling stories, the ordinary is made extraordinary and the real things that happen to people turn out to be every bit as mysterious as their dreams.

Review: "Few writers give me such consistent pleasure." * Zadie Smith * "Tessa Hadley has become one of this country's great contemporary novelists ... possessed of a psychological subtlety reminiscent of Henry James, and an ironic beadiness worthy of Jane Austen" * Guardian * "Hadley is a writer whose reputation grows with every book... This new collection of short stories reconfirms her remarkable talent... Hadley excels at both genres, brilliant at conveying emotion and with an uncanny ability to get under her character's skin... These stories brim with a keen intelligence and linger in the mind long after you close the book." -- Sebastian Shakespeare * Tatler * "[It is] lapidary, full of the most gorgeous sentences and brilliant observations." -- Alex Preston * Observer, 2017 Books of the Year * "Hadley's quiet rise to become one of Britain's best writers is further confirmed by her new collection, Bad Dreams and Other Stories... These well-turned, exceptionally nuanced pieces are solidly evocative of place, period...and sensory detail." -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *


Author Biography: Tessa Hadley is the author of six highly praised novels, Accidents in the Home, which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train, Clever Girl and The Past, and two collections of stories, Sunstroke and Married Love. The Past won the Hawthornden Prize for 2016. She lives in London and is Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her stories appear regularly in the New Yorker and other magazines.