Book description
Having left his first wife for the then 19-year old Barbara, Ian -
now waiting in a cafe for his 18-year old mistress, Laura - clearly
has no intentions of breaking the habit of a lifetime. Barbara,
meanwhile, burns with feverish guilt at the remembrance of a recent
holiday fling with a Jamaican bartender. When Barbara's mother Molly
comes to visit her fragile daughter and chaotic grandchildren, it is
she who must attempt to plaster over the cracks rapidly widening
throughout this family.
Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in
the collection The Atmospheric Railway.
Shena Mackay was born in Edinburgh. She is the author of four
previous collections of stories -
Babies in Rhinestones
,
Dreams of Dead Women's Handbags
,
The Laughing Academy
and
The World's Smallest Unicorn
. Her novels include
Dunedin
,
The Orchard on Fire
(which was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize),
The Artist's Widow
and
Heligoland
(which was shortlisted for the 2003 Orange Prize).
