Winner of the Edge Hill Short Story Prize
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
An NPR Best Book of the Year
The award-winning author of The Past once again "crystallizes the
atmosphere of ordinary life in prose somehow miraculous and natural"
(Washington Post), in a collection of stories that elevate the mundane
into the exceptional.
The author of six critically acclaimed novels, Tessa Hadley has proven
herself to be the champion of revealing the hidden depths in the
deceptively simple. In these short stories it's the ordinary things that
turn out to be most extraordinary: the history of a length of fabric or
a forgotten jacket.
Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a new baby; a child awake in
the night explores the familiar rooms of her home, made strange by the
darkness; a housekeeper caring for a helpless old man uncovers secrets
from his past. The first steps into a turning point and a new life are
made so easily and carelessly: each of these stories illuminate crucial
moments of transition, often imperceptible to the protagonists.
A girl accepts a lift in a car with some older boys; a young woman reads
the diaries she discovers while housesitting. Small acts have large
consequences, some that can reverberate across decades; private
fantasies can affect other people, for better and worse. The real things
that happen to people, the accidents that befall them, are every bit as
mysterious as their longings and their dreams.
Bad Dreams and Other Stories demonstrates yet again that Tessa Hadley
"puts on paper a consciousness so visceral, so fully realized, it
heightens and expands your own. She is a true master" (Lily King, author
of Euphoria).
