'I don't know which is more amazing, Emma Cline's understanding of human beings or her mastery of language' Mark Haddon

The eagerly-awaited new book by Emma Cline, author of the global phenomenon The Girls

The stories in Emma Cline's stunning first collection consider the dark corners of human experience, exploring the fault lines of power between men and women, parents and children, past and present. A man travels to his son's school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame? A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she's playing. And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father.

These outstanding stories examine masculinity, male power and broken relationships, while revealing - with astonishing insight and clarity - those moments of misunderstanding that can have life-changing consequences. And there is an unexpected violence, ever-present but unseen, in the depiction of the complicated interactions between men and women, and families. Subtle, sophisticated and displaying an extraordinary understanding of human behaviour, these stories are unforgettable.

Emma Cline is from California. Her first novel, The Girls, was a Sunday Times bestseller and the highest selling debut novel of 2016. It has been published in over 40 countries worldwide. In 2017 Emma was selected as a Granta Best Young American Novelist.

Her short stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta and the Paris Review, where she was awarded the Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and have been selected for inclusion in the 2017, 2018 and 2020 Best American Short Story anthologies. Her story 'What Can You Do with a General' was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award 2019.