The Dominant Animal
By Kathryn Scanlan

A brilliant, unsettling collection of quick, sharp andamp; searing stories that asks the reader how humane humanity actually is a particularly apt question in our newly strange world.' --and Financial TimesA collection of innovative and ambitious short stories from a visionary young writerInand The Dominant Animaland Kathryn Scanlan s adventurous, unsettling debut collection compression is key. Sentences have been relentlessly trimmed, tuned and teased for maximum impact. A ferocious attention to rhythm and sound results in a palpable pulse of excitability and distress.In these forty very short stories, the ordinary shifts into the uncanny: in living rooms and in hotel rooms, on suburban lawns and on the surgeon s chair, characters human and animal eat, breathe, provoke and injure one another. Grandmothers sit tethered to the couch in a blue spell, lonesome men crouch among thorny shrubs, pets expire slowly or suddenly, and the nature of love is questioned at a golf course, a flower shop, an all-you-can-eat buffet.With exquisite control, Scanlan moves from expansive moods and fine afternoons to unease and violence. Disturbances accrue as the collection progresses. No mercy, a character says and these stories are merciless and strange and absolutely masterful.'These are sentences written in stone to be read out loud or learned by heart.' --and Irish Times'In these flawless, gripping, beautiful stories Kathryn Scanlan gives us a picture of life s true uneasy heart.' -- David Hayden, author ofand Darker with the Lights On'The Dominant Animaland left me feeling uneasy, off-balance and immeasurably better for having read it.'-- Julia Armfield, author ofand salt slow'Elegantly spare yet exhilarating... A startling, arresting debut.' -- Nicole Flattery, author ofand Show Them a Good Time'I readand The Dominant Animaland in a single sitting and finished it hungry for more of the mercurial, singular, surprising magic Kathryn Scanlan is creating.' -- Megan Nolan'All of life s absurdities and violences are here, dressed up and pulsing with an inimitable energy and intellect that sticks.' -- Rachael Allen, author ofand Kingdomland