Heart-breaking, profound, this is an unforgettable collection of interlinked stories, delivered in a Scottish prose style unique to this gifted writer. Paisley sets her book in a central Scots village - "like livin life oan an intersection whaur everyhin goes by an nuhin comes in"; she lays bare the dramas of their lives in a world where there's little escape and less privacy.
Tom's "no right in the heid" and sneaks out at night to watch couples through windows. Magrit listens to opera and uses sequins to dispell the ache of not seeing her only grandchild. Isa draws her pension and waits for the police to find out what she's done to her man. Scratchy wants to get off with Clair and plans to kill her step-father.
Archie spices up his old age by defrauding the shops down the town and the police are after Howie while Tessa, his pregnant girlfriend, is about to give birth. "And that's not aw" . . .
