A.L. Kennedy - What Becomes

Publishers Weekly“A bold new collection by relentlessly surprising Scottish author Kennedy...” These stories are polished to perfection, full of very dark turns and exemplary of Kennedy's inventiveness...

The Telegraph“These are strong, grown-up stories, resonant and demotic by turns...” Unflinching insight, clear and spacious prose, a narrative voice that bounces between grave compassion and bantering wickedness and plenty of black comedy. None of which makes this a particularly easy book to read...

The Times“She takes you to an extreme, morbidly fascinating place...” Sometimes stomach churning, bleak and humorous in turn, she is rightly viewed as one of the most brilliant and eccentric writers of her generation...

The Independent“Her insights from the front line are Beckettian in their sunless humour...” Reading them is far from depressing. Not that they're exactly uplifting; not for Kennedy the confected uplift, the phoney epiphany beloved of so many short-story writers. Like Eeyore, she's a born comic whose shtick is never to crack a smile...

Guardian“Observation of emotions large, small and unknown is the whole point...” These are wonderfully textured pieces, varying from sentence to sentence, mood to mood, committed to capturing the precariousness and unsteadiness of individual mental landscapes...

Economist 

The Scotsman“Another stunning, impressive and genuinely enjoyable collection...” Traces of her other career as an accomplished stand-up comic bleed brilliantly into her writing, often dabbing anaesthetic light relief in between the moments of heartache, longing or love that has turned stale...

Financial Times“Written with the tonal meticulousness of genuine literature...” Never mere snapshots, these tales reliably include enough plot to function as proper stories. Eschewing the vague drifting-off endings that are in vogue with many of her peers, Kennedy writes satisfying, resonant conclusions...

The New York Times 

The New Yorker